The murderous incursion by Hamas last week has plunged Israel into a political crisis as well as a military one.
Benjamin Netanyahu, once widely hailed as ‘Mr Security’, the man who could be relied upon to keep Israel’s borders secure against all comers, is now widely reviled.
Two opinion polls published on Friday showed that support for the prime minister is plummeting. Asked how they would vote if elections were being held this week, respondents to one poll gave Likud, Netanyahu’s ruling party, just 19 seats in the Knesset, down from the 32 it won in last year’s election. Only 29 per cent considered Netanyahu the best candidate to be prime minister.
Apart from the intelligence lapses that allowed Hamas fighters to break out of Gaza and the unpardonable delays in sending troops to relieve the siege of kibbutzes, Netanyahu’s failure to address the nation until three days after the attacks began indicate to many that he has lost the sureness of touch that has been his hallmark for so long.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) shakes hands with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) during statements to the media inside The Kirya, which houses the Israeli Defence Ministry, after their meeting in Tel Aviv on October 12
And when he made his first visit to the scene of the massacres on Saturday he got a distinctly lukewarm reception from troops on the ground, with some soldiers shouting for him to go away.
His stock is just as low in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. Politicians of all stripes, from the Left, Right and centre, are rubbishing Netanyahu behind the scenes. While he has managed to create an emergency coalition with Benny Gantz, a former chief of staff of the IDF who leads a centre-Right party, others refused to sign up.
Yair Lapid of the centrist opposition is boycotting the body because, he says, he will not sit alongside ‘extremists’ who he accuses of ‘unpardonable failures’.
Part of Netanyahu’s problem lies in the fact that even before the events of last week his authority had already been severely undermined.
In July, hundreds of Israeli reservists marched in Tel Aviv threatening to refuse their volunteer service if the government pressed ahead with a controversial plan to curb the Supreme Court’s power to review legislation.
‘Every soldier who endangers his life and goes on missions does that for a state that is defined as Jewish and democratic,’ one told Reuters. ‘But if you take one of those out, if the country stops being Jewish or democratic, it’s no longer a country that can be protected.’
Critics say that Netanyahu is motivated to weaken the courts and change the judicial system as a way to open an escape route from the corruption charges he faces.
He has been charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate scandals involving powerful media moguls and wealthy associates. He denies any wrongdoing.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, September 27
The scale of the disillusion is bad news for the man the electorate used to affectionately know as ‘Bibi’. Ten days ago, lots of Israelis would say: ‘Whatever is wrong with Bibi as a politician, he’s got the country covered.’ Not any more.
Netanyahu used to invoke Neville Chamberlain as the embodiment of the kind of appeasing politician whom he despised. But it was Chamberlain’s incompetence as a war leader which cost him his premiership in 1940, making way for Churchill.
Once Netanyahu would have postured as Israel’s Winston but now his hold on power is loosening at just the time he is most in need of the authority to find a way out of this terrible crisis by releasing the hostages and driving Hamas out of Gaza.
There is a precedent for a solution set back in 1982. After a brutal war in Lebanon then, Israel agreed to let the Palestinian fighters leave Beirut and go into exile far across the Mediterranean in Tunisia. Palestinian civilians remained behind.
The Israeli prime minister then, Menachem Begin, had a strong reputation having made peace with Egypt and could settle for less than total victory. Today Netanyahu and his political allies are on much more shaky ground.
Netanyahu is caught on the horns of a dilemma. Will he do what’s right for Israel and ordinary Palestinians, or try to save his premiership regardless of the cost to his own people and the innocents trapped as human shields for Hamas in Gaza?
