Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, gained notoriety as a security hawk by serving in a highly skilled special forces team that executed some of the most audacious hostage rescue operations in Israeli history.
As the longest-serving leader in his nation’s history, he will now be remembered for one of the biggest security lapses in its history as well as the fate of the more than 200 hostages taken by Palestinian Hamas terrorists from Gaza, who Israel claims killed 1,400 people on the bloodiest day in the country’s 75-year history.
The number of fatalities, the traumatizing tales, and the photographs of the carnage that surfaced from southern Israeli communities near Gaza have shook the nation.
Netanyahu, 74, is the leader of one of Israel’s most radical right-wing coalitions and is serving his sixth term as prime minister. As anger over the mistakes that allowed the attack to occur has grown, so has the pressure on him.
When asked about taking responsibility, he has merely responded that everyone will have to face difficult questions once the conflict with Hamas is finished. In one of his few news briefings, he also brushed off a question on whether or not he would resign.
But the mood of the country has turned, according to opinion polls showing a large majority blaming him, underpinned by images of cabinet ministers being abused in public when they step out of their official cars.
An 18-19 October Maariv newspaper poll showed former Defence Minister Benny Gantz, an opposition centrist party head in a newly formed unity government, was favoured for prime minister by 48% of respondents, compared with only 28% for Netanyahu.
“Netanyahu is going to go. Just like the top military, the intelligence and GSS (intelligence service) officials. Because they failed,” the daily newspaper Israel Hayom wrote in an editorial this week.
His popularity had already been damaged by a long battle over proposals to limit the Supreme Court’s powers, which resulted in months of unrest for hundreds of thousands of Israelis who were facing trial on charges of corruption, which he denies.
As Israeli tanks burrow deep into the blockaded region and Israeli jets conduct out airstrikes that the Gaza health ministry claims have killed over 8,000 Palestinians, political repercussions have been temporarily suspended.
However, a lot will rely on the outcome of the operation, which has as its stated goal the permanent destruction of Hamas, and whether or not his own party will stick with him in the face of growing cries for reform.
