“We want a vote to get rid of Netanyahu.” “I hope the protests continue and grow,” said one protester
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247 In the nine months before Israel’s massacre of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced a wave of mass protests against his controversial judicial reform law, sparking unprecedented public unrest. Then came the October 7 attack by the Hamas group on Israeli territory, triggering the conflict that has already claimed more than 10,000 lives, and support for Netanyahu, fueled by popular fear, appeared to have experienced a temporary boost. However, exactly a month after the invasion, the 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas remain missing, and Israelis feel increasingly defenseless and dissatisfied with their leader, whom many blame for the current situation, the O Globo newspaper reports. >>> Israel will be in control of security in the Gaza Strip indefinitely, Netanyahu says
In recent days there has been clear evidence that Netanyahu has significantly lost popularity. On Saturday and Sunday, thousands of relatives and friends of those abducted by Hamas took to the streets in Tel Aviv to protest against the government’s actions and inadequate efforts to release their families. The protests spread to cities such as Haifa, Beersheba and Eilat and even reached Jerusalem, where hundreds demonstrated outside the prime minister’s residence, demanding his resignation and blaming him directly for Israel’s security failures that enabled the attack. “We want a vote to get rid of Netanyahu.” “I hope the protests continue and increase,” Netta Tzin, 39, told AFP.
Analysts say Netanyahu, who leads the most rightwing government in Israel’s history and is already facing legal and political problems, will have a difficult task staying in power after the conflict. While his popularity before the war was not the best (even among Likud voters, the party led by Netanyahu), now 73% of the population consider him unfit to rule Israel, according to a Lazar Research Institute poll released Friday . A separate poll by Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 released on Saturday found that 76% of respondents believe Netanyahu should resign and 64% support holding elections immediately after the war.
Much of the frustration with Netanyahu stems largely from his refusal to apologize for Israel’s failure to anticipate or prevent the Hamas attack. In the Channel 13 poll, 80% of Israelis want him to take responsibility for the intelligence and security failures (admitted by the Israeli military authorities, but not by him) that preceded the invasion. “He fears that this will become an overly repeated slogan and harm his prospects of staying in power,” said political analyst and former adviser to the prime minister Aviv Bushinsky, as quoted by the Financial Times.
There were already signs of popular discontent with Netanyahu after he posted a controversial post on X, formerly Twitter, in late October in which he claimed that Israel’s military and security chiefs had not warned him about the attack. The post sparked an angry reaction from many Israelis and members of the newly formed war cabinet, prompting former defense minister and opposition leader Benny Gantz to call for a withdrawal. Netanyahu deleted the post and apologized, saying: “I was wrong.”
CONTINUED AFTER RECOMMENDATIONS
A report in the British newspaper The Guardian said anonymous Likud members suggested that Netanyahu’s (who ruled Israel for nearly 16 of the last 27 years) days in office were numbered. In addition, the White House denied rumors that President Joe Biden expressed the same opinion during his recent visit to Israel, marking a scathing criticism of Netanyahu’s leadership from Israel’s closest ally. Netanyahu was the first prime minister to be charged with corruption while in office, returning a year and four months after being ousted by a diverse coalition.