How Israel's Netanyahu survives in office

After several turbulent weeks in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is increasingly being portrayed as directly liable for the fate of the hostages still held by Hamas. Despite increasing internal and international pressure to barter an agreement with Hamas to release the hostages, Netanyahu stays steadfast in his opposition to such an agreement.

Reports within the Israeli and international media Netanyahu is accused of actively tries to undermine any possible agreement.

But despite all this public outrage, Netanyahu’s The grip on power seems so strong as all the time.

Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel almost a 12 months ago has significantly damaged Netanyahu's popularity and his government coalitionThe government's inadequate response to the attack, the prolongation of the conflict and the shortcoming to secure the discharge of all surviving hostages undermine public confidence in Netanyahu and his colleagues. In fact, many expected the federal government to be overthrown inside weeks of the attack.

But whatever the historical low approval rankings by Netanyahu and his government, opposition parties couldn’t capitalize on the political situation.

On the contrary, despite widespread criticism that the illiberal, religious and ultra-nationalist agenda of Netanyahu and his coalition has seriously weakened Israel’s social cohesion and played a major role in Hamas’ decision to initiate the attack, The government has renewed its efforts to implement it.

The forces currently shaping Israel's political landscape are usually not simply a struggle between Netanyahu's conservative coalition and a more liberal opposition, nor a struggle between hawks and doves, or between pro-war and anti-war supporters.

As Scholar of Israeli culture, history and politicsI believe it's rather more complicated.

Dehumanization of the Palestinians

The overwhelming majority of Israelis Distrust of Netanyahu and his government and are further of the opinion that a continuation of the military ground operation within the Gaza Strip, as Netanyahu recommends, endangers the lives of the hostages.

That is why most Israelis support an agreement to return the hostages, which can be achieved by agreeing to a ceasefire or even a withdrawal from Gaza.

However, evidently Israeli Jews agree with Netanyahu that the final word goal of the war is the entire eradication of Hamas, not the return of the hostages, and that Israel is probably going achieve this by continuing the war.

For this reason, they consider that Israel mustn’t abide by international laws of war on this fight. A transparent majority consider that crimes and abuses by Israeli soldiers and other security forces must be addressed. lenient through disciplinary measures quite than criminal charges.

It seems, subsequently, that the resistance of Israeli Jews to the continuation of the Gaza war and the Escalation of Israeli violence within the West Bank The reason for his or her resistance isn’t their concern for the suffering of the Palestinians. Rather, their resistance stems from the fear of endangering the lives of the surviving hostages.

Common worldview

The differences between the governing coalition and lots of of its critics are subsequently less about worldview, strategy, tactics or the morality of the actions within the Gaza Strip, but quite about an assessment of Netanyahu's personality and the performance of his cabinet in times of crisis.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid spoke about Netanyahu very harsh in a recent interview: “The only thing he cares about is staying in power. He has been in power for too long. He cares about power itself and not the power to do good.”

The Hamas attack, the high civilian death toll and the failure to attain a fast, decisive victory and even the looks of 1 have left Netanyahu and his partners the support of the vast majority of Israelis.

If elections were held today, Netanyahu and his allies would wouldn’t have the ability to form a governmentBut the probabilities of early elections are slim: the present coalition has little interest in calling recent elections, and the bulk who enjoy it in parliament prevents the opposition from forcing recent elections. This implies that any try and call recent elections would require the support of a minimum of some members of the coalition.

The improbability of them having the ability to form the following government forces the parties inside Netanyahu’s coalition to stay together and radicalize their agenda.

Intensification their efforts to take care of their basecoalition members insist that their demands must be implemented now – whatever the public outcry, the financial costs or international pressure. They appear to hope that by the point of the elections, which is able to eventually will happen in October 2026they are going to have succeeded in winning the voters back over to their side.

Furthermore, they see the war as a possibility. The current state of emergency as a consequence of the continuing war provides the ruling coalition with a pretext to take illiberal measures that undermine fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression, protest and occupation.

This is much more true in the case of non-Jewish residents. The heightened security concerns after the war and the incontrovertible fact that lots of its critics the truth is share its worldview allow the ruling coalition to enact laws and administrative measures that might previously have faced much greater public and legal resistance.

The power supply is secure

It is subsequently no wonder that essentially the most radical elements in Netanyahu’s coalition, which explicitly racism, ethnic cleansing And genocidehave gained a disproportionate amount of influence over the federal government, the coalition and the state as a complete.

Netanyahu and his government could also be unpopular, but they’ve a firm grip on power and are pursuing policies that many Israeli Jews, if not Israeli Palestinians, implicitly or explicitly support.

Internal tensions inside Netanyahu's coalition – for instance between the ultra-Orthodox and ultra-nationalist factions – could potentially cause it to fail. But each of those parties has a vested interest in its survival.

I’m convinced that only a unprecedented event could topple Netanyahu: a general and unlimited strike supported not only by the Histadrut, which represents the vast majority of Israeli unions, but in addition by employers and your complete industrial and financial sector; a de facto or legal military coup with the backing of all of the heads of the Israeli armed forces, security forces and intelligence services; or a military and financial embargo against Israel.

Given the extraordinary nature of those events, they’re most unlikely.