Judgement Day Looms For Israel’s Netanyahu As Palestine Conflict Spirals

A hospital visitation gate was closed to a minister of the Israeli cabinet. A man who had recently lost his wife threw coffee at another’s bodyguards, soaking them. As a third approached to console family who had been evacuated during the trauma, the words “traitor” and “imbecile” were yelled at her.

Israelis have come together as a result of the shocking Hamas shooting tragedy on October 7. However, there is scant support for a government that is widely accused of letting its guard down and dragging the nation into the roiling Gaza conflict.

After a record-breaking career of political comebacks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a day of reckoning no matter what happens.

The public’s outrage over the 1,300 Israeli deaths has been heightened by Netanyahu’s distinctive self-portrait as a Churchillian strategist who foresaw threats to national security.

Another background is the social division this year over his religious-nationalist coalition’s push for judicial reform, which led to several military reservist walkouts and generated concerns about combat fitness that, some claim, have now been vindicated by blood.

A headline in the best-selling daily Yedioth Ahronoth referred to “October 2023 Debacle” in an effort to bring to mind Israel’s failure to foresee a simultaneous Egyptian and Syrian offensive in October 1973, which ultimately forced then-Prime Minister Golda Meir to resign.

The monopoly of Meir’s center-left Labour party was ended by his removal. For Netanyahu and his long-ruling, conservative Likud party, research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem Amotz Asa-El foresaw a similar end.

“if or not he acknowledges responsibility or if there is a commission of inquiry is irrelevant. All that matters is what’middle Israelis’ believe, and they believe that the prime minister is to blame for this debacle, Asa-El told Reuters.

“He will go, and his entire establishment along with him.”

According to a study published in the Maariv newspaper, 21% of Israelis want Netanyahu to continue serving as prime minister after the conflict. 13% were unsure, while 66% responded with “someone else”.

According to the study, if elections were held today, Likud would lose a third of its seats while Benny Gantz’s moderate National Unity party would gain a third, giving him a better chance of winning the presidency.

ISRAEL FORMULATES A WAR EMERGENCY CABINET

However, Israelis do not currently desire a vote. They demand action, and Gantz, a former military commander, has put aside political differences to join Netanyahu in an extraordinary cabinet as the counteroffensive intensifies into a probable ground invasion.

Netanyahu has confined his interactions with the public due to his busy schedule with the senior brass and foreign representatives. Without any TV cameras present, he spoke with family members of over 200 hostages taken to Gaza. His wife went to see one grieving family as the clamour grew.

While his top general, defence minister, national security adviser, foreign minister, finance minister, and intelligence chiefs acknowledged failure to foresee and prevent the worst attack on civilians in Israel’s history, Netanyahu has yet to make any statements of personal responsibility.

Israel has received vociferous support from the West for its counteroffensive. That might diminish if a ground invasion of Gaza sputters under the weight of mounting Palestinian casualties and military losses.

Two pillars of Netanyahu’s foreign policy, peace with Saudi Arabia, which is currently on hold, and restraint of Iran, which is celebrating the Hamas mini-invasion as a win for a Middle Eastern axis sworn to Israel’s destruction, could also be destroyed by the conflict.

The Gaza battle, whose avowed objective is the obliteration of Hamas, might continue months, according to military planners. According to Asa-El, Netanyahu would benefit from a temporary political standstill. Another worry is how long the prime minister’s health will last. He received a pacemaker in July as judicial protests increased. Saturday is his 74th birthday.

Some observers have argued that Netanyahu should not be held solely responsible for the divisions among Israeli society and the extent to which they compromised national security.

Amit Segal, a political commentator for the most watched Channel 12 TV, remarked on Telegram, “We forgot to be brothers, and got a war.” It’s still possible to make repairs. Stop arguing right away.

Asa-El said that several cabinet ministers were being mocked and claimed that cracks were already visible inside the coalition administration.

“You hear people in the street who are natural Likud supporters speaking about them with unequivocal hostility,” he stated. The anger will only increase, and Netanyahu’s apparent attempt to avoid taking responsibility simply fuels the fire. He simply cannot bring himself to admit, “We messed up.