Their latest act reached new heights with that televised farce during the first session of US-Israel talks in Washington last week, when the Israeli prime minister rose from his seat and, with a flourish, presented the US president a document ostensibly showing that Israel had nominated him for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize! Netanyahu, like every head-of-state by now, knows that the fastest route to Trump’s heart is flattery.
The clearest indication that this was just another cynical stunt is that it violated one of the Nobel Committee’s basic rules regarding nominations: absolute secrecy. All nominations, regardless of the category, must be kept confidential for 50 years. Only after that period has elapsed are the nominees’ names made public. Those eligible to nominate candidates – members of governments, parliaments and international judicial bodies, in the case of the Nobel Peace Prize – must pledge to uphold this confidentiality.
By committing this flagrant breach of the Nobel Committee’s rules – in front of the global media, no less – Netanyahu probably rendered the nomination (should it ever exist) invalid, even as he presented it. Not that this would make a difference to that man, who routinely thumbs his nose at international norms, laws, and institutions. What matters is continuing to bend the US president to Israel’s will and agenda by fawning on him and feeding his insatiable infantile vanity.
Trump, of course, was delighted by this surprise, claiming he had no prior knowledge. Now Barack Obama won’t be the only US president to boast a Nobel Peace Prize, he probably thought.
The timing of that absurd spectacle – undoubtedly calculated – makes it all the more offensive. It came less than a month after the nominee ordered a sudden and unjustified military strike on Iran, a sovereign state posing no immediate threat to the US. This, moreover, followed soon on the heels of the equally unprovoked Israeli attack on the same state, killing dozens of civilians on the first day alone.
To complete the farce, both the nominee and the nominator are embroiled in legal and ethical scandals at home and the latter — Netanyahu — is wanted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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