(Jerusalem) The surprise aggression of Hamas against Israel shakes to its foundations the government of Benyamin Netanyahu, hitherto caught in a political-judicial imbroglio and which is now forced to a single task by public opinion: disintegrate the Islamist infrastructure at Gaza.
Immediate cause of this change in the political situation: the collective trauma caused in Israel by the legitimate and unprecedented attack launched by the organization described as terrorist by the United States and the European Union and which killed at least 1,200 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, including women and children. Not to mention the dozens of hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
“Netanyahu has his back against the wall. Everyone is putting pressure on him, including within his party,” Likud, explains Akiva Eldar, a seasoned commentator on local politics.
“No blank check”
According to him, even Joe Biden’s declared support is not “a blank check”: “Bibi (Mr. Netanyahu, Editor’s note) must destroy Hamas’ infrastructure, of course. But if it is at the cost of children who begin to die of hunger in Gaza, world opinion, currently favorable to Israel, will quickly change.”
PHOTO SAMAR ABU ELOUF, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Residents gather to view the damage caused by Israeli airstrikes on the Al-Rimal neighborhood of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
“The response must be proportional to the horrors committed by Hamas. But Netanyahu cannot afford to have the death of 1,000 other soldiers or that of the hostages on his hands,” insists Akiva Eldar.
Another source of pressure on “Bibi”: a prolonged paralysis of the country could have serious consequences for the population, as was the case after the 34 days of war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, Israeli economists warn.
A paralysis all the more likely, according to an Israeli military source, as the army is not ready to fight on three fronts: the South with Gaza, the North with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the East if the West Bank ignites.
On Wednesday, four days after the Hamas offensive, Mr. Netanyahu and one of the main opposition leaders, Benny Gantz, announced an agreement for an emergency government for the duration of the war.
“Netanyahu’s days are numbered”
“The presence of Benny Gantz within the government will slightly reduce pressure on the prime minister,” said Daniel Bensimon, expert on Israeli politics and former Labor MP.
This will reduce tensions but changes nothing fundamentally: Netanyahu’s days are numbered and he knows it. He will not survive this crisis. His political career is over. What happened is unprecedented since the creation of the State.
Daniel Bensimon, Israeli politics expert and former Labor MP
“There will be a commission of inquiry. It will be terrible. After that, he will fall with his ministers into the dustbin of History, with this shameful stain on his forehead: Israel’s greatest political and military fiasco,” he adds, “and he feels it GOOD. That’s why his back is against the wall.”
As for the demonstrations which have divided Israeli society for ten months around a controversial judicial reform, they promise to be even larger once the guns have fallen silent.
Because, according to Reuven Hazan, professor of political science at the University of Jerusalem, it is Mr. Netanyahu’s entire traditional approach to Hamas that has failed.
“The public will make him pay dearly when this nightmare is over.”
“Its design was bad. Hamas has been in power in Gaza since 2004. Netanyahu was elected in 2009. They are in charge almost at the same time. And it was during this period that the Islamists strengthened themselves so much,” explains Mr. Hazan.
“Huge mistake”
In fact, the six wars unleashed following Hamas’s barrage of rockets against Israel since its unilateral withdrawal in 2005 have served no purpose.
“We made a huge mistake in imagining that a terrorist organization could change its DNA, and stupidly we ourselves began to believe it,” said former national security advisor General Yaakov Amidror on Tuesday.
So what to do?
THE Jerusalem Post asks the burning question in Israel: “Perhaps it is time to occupy the Gaza Strip again? », a territory of 365 km², populated by 2.4 million Palestinians and controlled by Hamas which claims to have launched its attack to put an end to the “crimes of the Israeli occupation” of the Palestinian territories.
“When you enter Gaza, you never know in what state you will come out,” says Akiva Eldar: “That’s Netanyahu’s dilemma. So will he be rational enough to make the right decision? “.