- Written by Wyre Davis
- BBC Middle East correspondent
“How much more death and disaster will Israel endure under Prime Minister Netanyahu's watch?” read a headline in an Israeli newspaper this week.
The Haaretz newspaper article follows reports that the Israeli prime minister and other senior government officials are personally responsible for failures over the 2021 stampede that left 45 people dead at a Jewish religious festival. It continued.
The newspaper, which frequently criticizes the prime minister, noted that Netanyahu did not directly respond to the report. Instead, his Likud party suggested that the commission investigating the disaster was itself politically motivated.
Critics across the political divide have criticized the Mount Meron disaster and the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, and in particular Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to accept responsibility. It was assumed that there were similarities between them.
This happened at a time when opinion polls showed that the prime minister's prospects were not looking good.
He insists that “absolute victory” is the only option to end the war, but a poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) last month found that Jews (51%) and Arab Israelis It was found that both the majority of people (77.5%) answered that they would end the war. He is unlikely to achieve his goal of eliminating Hamas.
A survey conducted by Bar Ilan University in November suggested that less than 4% of Israelis trust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision-making regarding the Gaza war.
Although confidence in Prime Minister Netanyahu is low, most Israelis have consistently supported the Gaza war.
IDI's Tamar Herman said it was consistent to say that while most Israelis support the conflict and are less supportive of a future Palestinian state, they still distrust Netanyahu.
Professor Harman said he spearheaded unpopular judicial reforms before the Hamas attack, but then “lost his security status after October 7”.
The lack of progress in releasing the remaining hostages has also been a source of criticism.
Last weekend, thousands of hostage relatives and their supporters concluded a four-day march in front of the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem.
“Our government must above all ensure their return. This is the only humane thing that can happen,” said Yair Mozes, whose 79-year-old father Gadi was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz. he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said those are his priorities, but his decision not to send a delegation to ceasefire talks in Cairo this week was met with derision in some Israeli media.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, wearing the skin of a rhinoceros and with absolute conviction in the legitimacy of his cause, dug even deeper this week.
He reiterated that the military would eventually launch an assault on the southern city of Rafah, where an estimated 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are taking refuge. More than 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza, and much of the territory has been destroyed by Israeli shelling, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
International pressure is increasing as signs of further famine increase.
Belligerent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a military graduation ceremony this week that the military would “continue operations against all Hamas battalions.”
“There is international pressure and it is increasing,'' he said, “but it is precisely when international pressure increases that we must bring each other down.''
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was furious this week when his chief political rival, Benny Gantz, a member of his Unification War Cabinet, embarked on an unannounced and unsanctioned trip to visit key allies in Washington, D.C. and London. It is said that he did.
Gantz is a former army general and chief of staff who leads the more centrist National Unity Party. Opinion polls suggest that if elections were held today, Gantz would secure enough votes to form a coalition government in the 120-member parliament and oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Part of Gantz's appeal is simply that he is not Benjamin Netanyahu. He is a centrist and pragmatist who supports Israel's military goals. His generous reception by senior U.S. and British officials was widely interpreted as contempt for Netanyahu in his home country of Israel.
Some have criticized Gantz, describing him as a “political parking lot.” Transport Minister Miri Regev, an ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Gantz's visit looked like “a kind of subversion that seems to be working behind the scenes of the prime minister.”
Mr. Netanyahu is an experienced political survivor. Both his critics and supporters say he will do almost anything to maintain power and unite the government.
But his small coalition government is under strain as its survival depends on controversial far-right ministers and religious parties.
In return for support, the group claims economic concessions and the right of Orthodox Jews, who are religious students, to be exempted from military service. In countries where military service is universal, it is always a controversial issue. However, pressure on this policy is increasing as Israeli soldiers have been killed on active duty in Gaza.
Defense Minister Job Gallant, who is considered a potential successor to Mr. Netanyahu, is also known to be actively trying to reverse this policy.
And Nadav Argaman, former head of the Shin Bet's internal security service, told a security conference in Tel Aviv this week: “Israeli citizens are those who serve the state as the state defines it, and this is not military service. or national service.”
Mr. Netanyahu cannot be everything to everyone.
Once the war is over, there will be an investigation into what happened on October 7th and who knew what and when.
Prime Minister Netanyahu will be under intense scrutiny over what kind of warning he gave the government and his subsequent response. If any findings are highly critical of his role, as many observers believe, he can easily dismiss them, as he did with this week's Mount Mellon report. It may not be possible to dismiss it.
