Drop dead: In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was shot dead by a right-wing Israeli student who considered the prime minister a traitor to his country for his direct dealings with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and for helping to oversee the Oslo Accords that called for the creation of a Palestinian Authority that would tend to the needs of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. But after Rabin’s death, that bright, shining light was gradually snuffed out. The PLO was replaced by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both supplied and abetted by Islamic Iran, and determined to provoke the Jewish state in any way possible. Today, Israel is ruled by Benjamin Netanyahu, a chameleon-like figure who at times resembles Hungary’s deposed Viktor Orbán. He leads Israel by virtue of a devil’s bargain since his governing partners seek to literally exterminate the region’s Palestinian presence, a position amplified a thousand times over after the 2023 Hamas massacre and hostage-taking. So far, however, the “mighty vengeance” generated by that atrocity is only partly complete, though Israel is determined to occupy the whole of Gaza, massively increase West Bank settlements, and take as much of Lebanon as it needs to offset the Hezbollah threat. Here is where problems begin. The American president wishes to rein in at least some of these ambitions so he can strike a peace deal with Iran, three-and-a-half months after he (alongside Israel) started a war whose true goal was to oust the Islamic regime and in so doing humble the two Hs. Netanyahu has so far mostly complied with his boss’ orders, thus enraging Israel’s dominant reactionaries, who are almost pathologically averse to the Palestinian people. The future is grim and, in some ways, ironically reminiscent of the infamous New York Daily News headline published when President Gerald Ford refused financial help to the downtrodden city. It read, “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD.” If Rabin were alive today, and still eager for regional peace, a similar headline might read “ISRAEL TO RABIN: DROP DEAD,” but that part has already been signed, sealed, and delivered.