According to Tsipis, Netanyahu is afraid that Gallant may be gunning for him and would immediately start plotting against him upon arriving in the US.
"Netanyahu is paranoid, he has a king syndrome, a god complex,” says Tsipis. “He constantly fears that someone might overthrow or supplant him. This paranoia of his grows more acute with each passing day. He sees traitors everywhere, he sees enemies inside his inner circle.”
Seeing how the potential Israeli strike on Iran was the very issue Gallant and Austin were supposed to discuss in the US, Netanyahu basically ended up “holding hostage the entire Middle East, including Israel’s population and Iranian society,” argues Tsipis.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that Netanyahu is essentially trying to blackmail the US by threatening to start a major conflict right on the eve of the US presidential election, the expert adds.
“The relations between the US and Netanyahu are quite strained. Neither Democrats nor Republicans can hold the election normally if there is a big war raging in the Middle East,” Tsipis explains. “This is Netanyahu’s biggest leverage and the primary instrument of blackmail.”
The closer the US election nears, the more unhinged Netanyahu gets and the more “outrageous actions” he performs, Tsipis notes.
He also suggests that the upcoming phone call between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden is going to be related to the security situation in the Middle East: namely, Netanyahu will likely seek the United States’ support in case of a war with Iran, whereas Biden will probably demand from Netanyahu to not start such war in the first place.
Finally, Tsipis points out that one should not necessarily equate Benjamin Netanyahu with Israel.
“Netanyahu does not represent the entire Israel,” he insists, arguing that the Israeli prime minister currently “acts as a dictator.”