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The Middle East has never been short of strongmen but it has outdone itself this time. It has delivered the most dangerous man we have ever encountered and whom we can no longer tolerate.

No one from his own country or beyond can compete with him. He has amassed records: no one has killed more Palestinians than him. He has created an endless stream of corpses, widows and orphans. His military arsenal is impressive: the best US jets, rockets that never miss their target, and a modern killing machine that uses artificial intelligence to produce the most horrific forms of starvation.

No one has violated maps and international laws as much as he has. No one has assassinated as many Palestinian leaders as he has. He has pursued them everywhere. He has violated skies, laws and norms to get them. They are not allowed to live. To him, Palestinians have either been killed or should be killed. He sees no reason for their existence on their land. A terrified warrior shows no mercy; not to innocent children or the keffiyeh-wearing elderly. They are all dead to him. He burns tents and demolishes buildings. He has forced their displacement numerous times. He dreams of a Gaza that is devoid of its residents.

He is the most dangerous man. More dangerous than David Ben-Gurion, the mastermind and founder of Israel. He has already defeated him by being Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. He is more dangerous than Levi Eshkol, whose term witnessed the eruption of the 1967 war. He hates the Palestinians more than Golda Meir. He is more dangerous than Menachem Begin, whose army invaded Beirut to expel the victory sign-wielding Yasser Arafat. He is more dangerous than Ariel Sharon, who destroyed the Oslo Accords. He makes Yitzhak Rabin look like an amateur. His list of assassinations outshines Ehud Barak’s. He also undoubtedly scorns Shimon Peres, who was a master at hiding his malign intentions behind his charming demeanor.

He does not care about the tears of Palestinians or the endless stream of small corpses. He rejoices at the destruction of houses and hospitals. He is paranoid about finding the Hamas tunnels and sees in every keffiyeh a dream of a Palestinian state. He is a wounded and reckless warrior. He orders assassinations, airstrikes and drone attacks every day.

He does not pause at the statements of the Arab League or Antonio Guterres’ tears. He scorns the UN and its charter. He does not care that his drones violate the sovereignty of other countries or that the Europeans are upset and the US is reprimanding him. He believes that the key to victory lies in changing facts on the ground. Later comes the process of cleaning up his image and addressing media and diplomatic losses.

His lethal savagery knows no limits. He is wiping out Gaza, punishing the West Bank, carrying out daily assassinations in Lebanon, destabilizing Ahmad Al-Sharaa’s Syria after Bashar Assad’s ouster, striking Yemen, and controlling Iran’s airspace, assassinating its generals and scientists, and taking out its radars.

Netanyahu has become the greatest danger to the region. His policies are a form of weapon of mass destruction that the region and the whole world need to confront.

Ghassan Charbel

One should not be surprised at the current state of affairs after taking a look at this intolerant warrior’s history. The man is, after all, a product of his own history. During his first meeting with Arafat in 1996, he was blunt and rude. He said: "Mr. Arafat, you know where I stand on the Oslo Accords that you signed with Rabin and Peres. I was against these agreements. This is a new Israeli government. I am informing you that these agreements are over for us."

He could not stand the idea of Arafat existing on Palestinian soil and addressing Israel from there. Since then, he has viewed the Palestinian Authority as more dangerous than Hamas because it enjoys legitimacy and uses the language of peace adopted by the Arab world and the international community.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s peak recklessness in Doha last week, when he ordered strikes against Hamas leaders, was preceded years ago by a failed attack, whose lessons he did not learn. On Sept. 25, 1997, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal was about to enter his Amman office when he was attacked by two Mossad agents who had entered Jordan under the guise of being Canadian tourists. They poisoned Meshaal and fled the scene. They were caught after a chase. After some two hours, the effects of the poison began to appear and the only way to save Meshaal was through an antidote.

King Hussein was livid. His country, a US ally, had signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. He sent the US a clear and firm message that forced Netanyahu to order that the antidote be delivered. He was also forced to release Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, whom Israel would later assassinate. Israel’s peace deal with Jordan and Amman’s close ties with Washington did not deter Netanyahu from going ahead with his reckless behavior.

The attack on Doha was greater and more dangerous than the one in Amman. Netanyahu did not consider Qatar’s role as mediator or its strategic relations with the US. So, the emergency Arab-Islamic summit in Doha has the responsibility to deter the excessive Israeli aggression. The situation today is different to the one at the time of the Amman attack. Arab Gulf countries have more economic and political weight and their ties with the US affect the global economy. This played out clearly with the wide diplomatic attack launched by ºÚÁÏÉçÇø and France that led to the adoption of the New York Declaration on the two-state solution.

The best punishment for Netanyahu’s adventure is the effective and rational use by the Doha summit of the several pressure cards at its disposal to convince the West, especially Donald Trump’s America, that the establishment of a Palestinian state is necessary to preserve stability in the Middle East and Western interests there. The summit must be realistic and recognize that this can only be achieved through US support. Only the two-state solution will return Israel to Israel and return its soldiers from the territories of its neighbors and its planes from the airspace of regional countries.

From the poison in Amman to missiles in Doha, Netanyahu has become the greatest danger to the region. His policies are a form of weapon of mass destruction that the region and the whole world need to confront.

• Ghassan Charbel is editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. X: @GhasanCharbel
• This article first appeared in Asharq Al-Awsat.