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From Edi Rama to Milorad Dodik: how Benjamin Netanyahu is becoming a certifier of leaders in trouble...
In diplomacy, there are no truly private meetings when figures with political weight and open legitimacy problems sit at the table. What Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did with Milorad Dodik at the expense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he did a few days ago, in a different form, but with the same logic. with Edi Rama as well.
Two different meetings, two diverse political figures, but the same diplomatic model: "informal" receptions, without a clear institutional framework, which in practice serve as injections of legitimacy for contested leaders.
Rama and Dodik: different in role, similar in need
There is no moral or political equivalence between Rama and Dodik. One is the prime minister of a NATO member state; the other the leader of an entity that openly challenges the state it is a part of. But the similarity that unites them is the need for external legitimacy in a moment of weakness.
Dodik seeks international recognition to strengthen his secessionist project.
Rama seeks symbolic international support at a time when the accumulation of problems with justice, political exhaustion after a fourth term, and the cooling of relations with the American administration have made him an increasingly contested figure.
In both cases, Netanyahu serves as a political “certifier,” offering them something they don’t easily find in the West: a photo, a meeting, a meaningful silence.
Israel as a symbolic refuge for leaders under pressure
Israel has a special moral and strategic weight in global politics. Precisely for this reason, every high-level meeting there has a disproportionate symbolic value. For Rama, the private meeting in Jerusalem was used for internal political consumption: as proof that he is “still accepted” at international tables. Like Dodik, he also used the lack of a flag and an official framework to avoid uncomfortable questions about mandates, institutions and responsibilities.
In diplomacy, the absence of protocol is often protocol itself.
The American administration and the silent vacuum
Unlike Israel, Washington has chosen a colder and more institutional approach towards official Tirana, avoiding public embraces and strong political signals. This silence is not a coincidence, but a message. And when a leader no longer finds the door open in Washington or major European capitals, he seeks symbolic alternatives.
Netanyahu, self-contested both domestically and internationally, is not a neutral arbiter of democratic legitimacy. But that is precisely why he becomes a suitable partner for leaders who seek political survival through image, not reform.
The danger of normalizing “photo diplomacy”
The problem is not just Rama or Dodik. The problem is the normalization of a practice where legitimacy does not stem from functional elections, the rule of law, or respect for institutions, but from a well-curated private meeting for the cameras.
In the Balkans, where states are still projects under construction, this practice is particularly toxic.
Netanyahu's private meetings with Rama and Dodik show the same thing: diplomacy, when detached from principles, turns into the personal service of struggling leaders. And when this happens, the price is not paid by individuals, but by the states and societies they represent, or claim to represent. /Pamphlet
Futja kot Rama është plotsisht i legjitimuar me zgjedhje dhe vota pavarsiisht afërsisë pajtimeve apo mospajtimeve me administratën amerikane. Dodik është larguar nga verssio nii i tij separatist në sshkkëmbim të heqjes sesanksioneve nnga thesari. Dhe kur të hamendsoni hamendensoni gjëra që i afrohen realitetit..
i ke rene fiks atje ku i dhemb....magjistarit te kapur me presh ne dore....dhe fotoja eshte domethense.....izraeli perpara se te mbeshtese kta lidhjere te krimbur politikisht te ket parasysh demin qe i bejne kombeve respektive...duke i bere reklam dhe suportuar ne menyre falco kta plera ordinere demtus te kombeve te tyre per perfitime personale dhe familjare...sigurisht eshte falsitet por per momentin demin e pesojne kombet perfshire dhe ne....se neser izraeli do flase ndryshe....e siguri do e shese klounin pafytyre RAMA