Israel’s Netanyahu faces the destruction of Hamas

JERUSALEM:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu built his reputation as a security hawk on the back of his service in an elite special forces unit that carried out some of Israel’s most daring hostage rescues.

His legacy as his country’s longest-serving leader will now be shaped by one of its worst security failures and the fate of more than 200 hostages taken by Palestinian Hamas gunmen from Gaza that Israel says killed 1,400 people in deadliest day in its 75-year history.

The scale of the killing, reports of injuries and images of violence emerging from southern Israeli communities around Gaza have shocked the country.

In his sixth term as prime minister, Netanyahu, 74, leads one of Israel’s most far-right coalitions and is under increasing pressure as initial shock has given way to anger over the failures that allowed the attack to take place.

He refused to take responsibility, saying only that everyone will have to answer tough questions when the war with Hamas is over, and in one of his rare press conferences he dismissed a question asking if he would resign.

But the mood of the country has changed, with polls showing a large majority blaming him, backed by images of cabinet ministers being publicly abused as they get out of their official cars.

An Oct. 18-19 Maariv newspaper poll showed former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, head of a centrist opposition party in a newly formed unity government, favored for prime minister by 48 percent of respondents, compared to just 28 percent for Netanyahu.

“Netanyahu is going to go. Just like the top military, intelligence and GSS (intelligence service). Because they failed,” the daily Israel Hayom wrote in an editorial this week.

Facing trial on corruption charges, which he denies, his popularity has already been hit by a bitter battle over plans to limit the Supreme Court’s powers, which has drawn hundreds of thousands of Israelis into the streets for months.

Reading US, others exploring options for Gaza’s post-Hamas future: Blinken

For now, the political fallout has been put on hold as Israeli jets have carried out airstrikes that Gaza’s health ministry says have killed more than 8,000 Palestinians and Israeli tanks have penetrated deep into the blockaded enclave.

But much will depend on the outcome of the operation, whose stated aim is to destroy Hamas for good, and whether his party will continue to support him in the face of increasingly loud calls for change.

“The government must deliver,” says his ally

“I’m not worried about the polls, I’m worried about delivering the results and I think Prime Minister Netanyahu and the government should succeed,” said Danny Danon, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations and a member of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party. in parliament.

“We’ve seen too many cycles in the past where pressure has forced the government to not complete the mission and leave Hamas in power,” he said.

“If the government does not deliver what it promised, which is to eliminate Hamas, I am sure it will not be accepted – neither by the public nor by the political system.”

But the military test, while terrifying enough in itself, is not the only challenge.

Netanyahu, who has burned the goodwill of even allies like the United States in the battle for judicial reform, is viewed with deep suspicion in much of the world because of his alliance with hardline religious and nationalist parties.

In addition to pressure over issues such as the relentless expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, there has been international alarm at the scale of casualties during bombing of Gaza.

The economy, wracked by uncertainty over the justice review process, which has been fiercely opposed by much of the business community, has been further hit with businesses in sectors ranging from construction to food services reporting sharp declines in revenue.

Netanyahu, usually a smooth and confident figure, has appeared increasingly volatile, notably in an incident this week in which he sent a late-night tweet accusing his intelligence chiefs of failing to warn him about the Oct. 7 attack.

The tweet was deleted the next morning and Netanyahu apologized, but the damage was done and there was a barrage of criticism from the press and across the political spectrum.

“He is a man who is unfit to serve as prime minister,” an editor at Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s best-selling newspaper, wrote this week, adding that Netanyahu should have resigned or been removed immediately after the Sept. 7 attack. October.