The Fall of Arrogance: Trump and Netanyahu from Ballot Boxes to the Shadow of International Courts
The text discusses the impact of election results in the US and the occupied entity on the fate of Trump and Netanyahu, linking this to an international arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu, and calling for legal accountability and justice for the victims of Gaza.
Translated by Qiyas from الجريدة — Original source
When power turns into arrogance, strength into posturing, and war into a means of political survival, the downfall of leaders becomes the beginning of a new phase of accountability. This is what the results of the recent elections in the United States and the occupied entity are raising, as Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu face the political repercussions of their policies, having believed that military and political influence granted them the right to determine the fate of peoples without being held accountable.
In the occupied entity, Netanyahu suffered an electoral blow after his camp failed to secure the parliamentary majority needed to form a government. In the United States, the midterm elections dealt a severe blow to Trump and his Republican Party, revealing that loud rhetoric and continuous threats alone cannot guarantee voter confidence.
Trump has acted as if the United States were a private company he runs at his whim, threatening this one, intimidating that one, imposing sanctions and tariffs, while demanding the world submit to his will. However, American citizens do not live on statements, do not pay their bills with threats, and do not find their future in foreign wars and conflicts.
Netanyahu’s name, meanwhile, is linked to one of the most horrific contemporary humanitarian tragedies in the Gaza Strip, characterized by killing, destruction, starvation, displacement, and the suffering of children, women, and civilians. These realities cannot be reduced to military statements or justified by national security slogans.
Netanyahu’s responsibility for the alleged crimes in Gaza is no longer merely a political accusation, following the International Criminal Court’s issuance of an arrest warrant against him in November 2024 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. This is a serious judicial step, even if it is not a final conviction.
As for Trump, his political and military support for the occupied entity raises serious questions about his political and moral responsibility for the continuation of the Palestinian tragedy, and about the extent to which any American official could be held accountable if legal proof establishes their personal involvement in acts constituting international crimes. Criminal responsibility is not established by slogans, but by evidence, investigations, and judicial rulings.
The political accountability of these two men before their respective peoples should not mark the end of the road. Gaza is not merely an electoral issue; it is a matter of blood, rights, and victims who deserve justice. If investigations reveal additional criminal responsibilities, former office, political immunity, and international influence must not become means of escaping punishment.
Accountability may begin within national institutions, but it should not stop at national borders when international jurisdiction and sufficient evidence are available. War crimes do not fade from the memory of peoples with the end of elections, nor are they erased by leaving office.
The most dangerous outcome would be if those who made the decisions depart, leaving only the victims to bear their consequences. Therefore, calls for independent investigations and judicial accountability are not political revenge, but a defense of a fundamental principle: no one is above the law.
International justice may be delayed, and its progress may be obstructed by interests and alliances, but justice should not be a privilege for powerful states or a sword wielded only against the weak.
The question that will continue to haunt Trump and Netanyahu is not only how their voters will remember them, but how history and the judiciary will treat the decisions made during the Gaza tragedy.
The presidential chair is not an eternal immunity, military power is not a certificate of innocence, and the blood of Gaza’s children is not a minor detail in any president’s political biography. If crimes are proven before the competent court, there must be accountability, regardless of the defendants’ names or positions.
