“DAMAGED” LEADER
Pressure on Netanyahu had been building before the attacks, and experts say a showdown is just a question of time.
The premier, who has led Israel for nearly 16 of the past 27 years, is still fighting three corruption cases in court.
The nine months leading up to Oct 7 saw mass protests over his hardline government’s divisive judicial overhaul that opponents called a threat to Israeli democracy.
Israel had been “ripping itself apart” before Hamas’s attacks, said Hazan.
But “there is no politics now because of the war”, he added.
“At some point politics will come back. Then there will be questions, and then the protests will come back.”
When the war ends, the government is likely to order a commission of inquiry – either a governmental one with relatively little power, or a more independent national commission.
If Netanyahu is found to be at fault over the attacks, his political problem could become critical.
The government has warned the war will take months and Netanyahu is not obliged to call an election for three years, but observers struggle to see him lasting that long.
“Everybody knows that he is damaged,” according to Hazan, who said there were “signs” that coalition members “know that the game is up”.
Polls indicate Israelis’ preferred candidate was now centrist leader Benny Gantz, a minister without portfolio in the war cabinet who was in the opposition before the war erupted.
“Netanyahu’s legacy has been shattered by both the division he has sown through the judicial overhaul and the multiple failures that enabled the Oct 7 attack,” said Greene.
“Many Israelis consider these two issues to be linked.”
Source: CNA
