Ricardo Pascoe Pierce - Israel and Mexico: shared methods

Finding parallels between leaders because they prioritize their personal-political interests over the national interest always gives a clue about the levels of violence in their countries. They face challenges of excessive violence when they run their governments, but they prefer to provide political solutions that favor them.

For this reason, we should not be surprised by the similarities that the observation shows between the governments of Benjamin Netanyahufrom Israel, and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, from Mexico. Two distant countries, but they have striking similarities when you look closely.

The first great similarity is that they are countries whose societies face high levels of violence on a daily basis. Mexico has the presence of drug trafficking in wide swaths of its territory and, therefore, registers very high levels of violence that resemble a civil war in certain areas.

Israel, for its part, lives daily with confrontation with the violent expressions of an Islamic community that rejects its existence as a State and considers it its duty to destroy the Jewish State. Faced with this threat, Israel is a warrior State organized for its territorial and national defense.

Both societies live, therefore, on the border between legality and illegality, and just and unjust wars, and in contact every day with their dead. And both societies, which consider themselves democratic, are permanently immersed in the tension between the necessary practices of tolerance and dialogue that democracy demands, confronted with demands for greater authoritarianism and militarism to control the situations typical of societies with violence overflowing and directly threatening national life in a peaceful community.

These similarities are also expressed in the political sphere. The two leaders are at the peak of their political lives and standing on the precipice of their decline. Because they are both possessors of great narcissism, they reject their decline, but they cannot avoid it either.

Netanyahu He has become obsessed with the idea that his “greatness” as a leader will be tarnished and questioned by his possible dismissal on corruption charges. Therefore, everything he does is a function of his determination to remain in office, whatever the cost. He has divided society over the attempt to subjugate the Israeli Judiciary to his interests to avoid criminal prosecution.

There is no doubt that this attempt to Netanyahu The attempt to create a containment dam for his judges deeply divided Israeli society and the Israeli government. It will also have played into Hamas's political calculations to prepare and execute its attack on Israel. He surely considered that he would face a society weakened militarily by its internal democratic debate. Obviously, he was wrong.

But even immersed in a cruel war, Netanyahu continues to operate based on its political calculations to remain in power. His lack of empathy towards sectors of Israel that oppose his continued political projects has become noticeable, even in these current extreme conditions of war for survival. He photographs himself with soldiers, but not with Israeli victims of Hamas violence.

Lopez Obrador, in Mexico, faces a situation similar to a civil war, with large swaths of the national territory under the total control of organized crime. Although it would be logical to think that the President would seek to unite the country to defeat a common enemy, this is not the case. His political calculation focuses on how to win the next elections, far above his interest in defeating organized crime. What's more, if he requires the support of organized crime to beat the opposition, he will make an agreement with their leaders.

The most recent crisis of his government, the hurricane Otis In Guerrero, it is another example of how political self-interest is above empathy with the problems of society in general. Even Acapulco is threatened by organized crime, as it is preparing to manage the millionaire resources that could be directed to the reconstruction of the affected area. Organized crime is ready to turn Acapulco into its new fortress.

Lopez Obrador has prioritized its “war” against the Judiciary, which stops its anti-constitutional and, therefore, illegal projects, with force and consistency, respecting the Magna Carta that governs the country. He hates the ministers of the SCJN more than the drug trafficking leaders who strangle, harass, rob and kill innocent citizens every day. The violence that has taken over Mexico disproportionately affects women and children. But the Mexican President is more concerned about winning the next election than finding solutions to the problems of the following generations. This presidential attitude condemns Mexico to continue living and surviving the onslaught of the civil war that plagues Mexico.

Two leaders facing adverse situations, but with similar methods for their attention: prioritizing their personal political interests over the national interest. And that method carries a threat to the democratic stability of their nations.