Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been in the spotlight for sometime now. It began with protests by his country’s own citizens over the reforms he was trying to bring about in Israel a few months back. The terror attacks by Hamas on October 7 have made things worse for him.
The government led by the 73-year-old, known as Bibi, was caught unawares when hundreds of Hamas gunmen were able to cross the heavily fortified border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, and thousands of rockets rained from Gaza into Israel.
Shockingly, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet, world-renowned external spy agency Mossad and the Israeli military’s own intelligence assets did not see this coming.
“We are in a war for the house and it must end in one thing: complete victory, crushing and eliminating Hamas,” said Netanyahu on Friday reaffirming his resolve to continue the offensive on Gaza.
However, despite the rhetoric, a poll conducted by Israeli research institutes indicates that Netanyahu’s popularity has dropped since Hamas’s devastating attack last weekend, while that of Benny Gantz, a former general who’s now part of Israel’s “war cabinet,” has surged. The survey, published by Maariv newspaper on Friday and carried out by Lazar Research in partnership with Panel4All, showed opposition parties would win a crushing majority against Netanyahu’s coalition if elections were held now. Of the roughly 600 people surveyed, 48 per cent said Gantz was their preferred prime minister, while 29 per cent chose Netanyahu.
Netanyahu, the longest serving Israeli Prime Minister, has repeatedly formulated his policies around the idea that Israel can resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict and proceed to normalize relations with Arab countries without engaging with the Palestinians.
However, the present conflict suggests otherwise. Many countries like China, Qatar and Iran are opposing Israel. There have been pro-Palestine protests held in many parts of the world. In what is being viewed as a stray incident, an Israeli diplomat was stabbed in Beijing raising concerns over the security of Israelis living across the world.
Israel has warned one million Palestinians living in Gaza to flee. Their basic supplies like water and electricity have been cut. This move has been criticised in many parts of the world, and is likely to escalate tensions further.
On Saturday, Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian urged Israel to stop attacks on Gaza warning that otherwise it would expand to other parts of Middle East if Hezbollah joined it. “Israel would suffer an earthquake,” he warned.
Whether this would have any bearing on Netanyahu’s offensive, time will tell.
Elected for his sixth term on December 29th 2022, Netanyahu is a far-right leader who is also on trial for corruption.
Netanyahu was born in Jaffa in 1949. His mother Tzila Segal was an Israeli-born Jew and father Benzion Netanyahu was from Poland. He was raised in Jerusalem and had his high school education in the US.
In 1967, Netanyahu joined the Israeli army and soon became an elite commando who served as captain during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. In 1982, Netanyahu was appointed deputy chief of mission at the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. In 1984, he was appointed Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations.
His political career began when he was appointed as deputy foreign minister in 1988 in the cabinet of then Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. He became the chairman of the Likud party in 1993, which he lost to Ariel Sharon and regained in 2005. He served as the PM of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and a record 12-year tenure from 2009 to 2021.
ALSO READ: Israel-Hamas war LIVE | Gaza death toll rises to 2,215 including 724 children: ministry Follow channel on WhatsApp
NEW DELHI: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been in the spotlight for sometime now. It began with protests by his country’s own citizens over the reforms he was trying to bring about in Israel a few months back. The terror attacks by Hamas on October 7 have made things worse for him.
The government led by the 73-year-old, known as Bibi, was caught unawares when hundreds of Hamas gunmen were able to cross the heavily fortified border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, and thousands of rockets rained from Gaza into Israel.
Shockingly, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet, world-renowned external spy agency Mossad and the Israeli military’s own intelligence assets did not see this coming.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
“We are in a war for the house and it must end in one thing: complete victory, crushing and eliminating Hamas,” said Netanyahu on Friday reaffirming his resolve to continue the offensive on Gaza.
However, despite the rhetoric, a poll conducted by Israeli research institutes indicates that Netanyahu’s popularity has dropped since Hamas’s devastating attack last weekend, while that of Benny Gantz, a former general who’s now part of Israel’s “war cabinet,” has surged. The survey, published by Maariv newspaper on Friday and carried out by Lazar Research in partnership with Panel4All, showed opposition parties would win a crushing majority against Netanyahu’s coalition if elections were held now. Of the roughly 600 people surveyed, 48 per cent said Gantz was their preferred prime minister, while 29 per cent chose Netanyahu.
Netanyahu, the longest serving Israeli Prime Minister, has repeatedly formulated his policies around the idea that Israel can resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict and proceed to normalize relations with Arab countries without engaging with the Palestinians.
However, the present conflict suggests otherwise. Many countries like China, Qatar and Iran are opposing Israel. There have been pro-Palestine protests held in many parts of the world. In what is being viewed as a stray incident, an Israeli diplomat was stabbed in Beijing raising concerns over the security of Israelis living across the world.
Israel has warned one million Palestinians living in Gaza to flee. Their basic supplies like water and electricity have been cut. This move has been criticised in many parts of the world, and is likely to escalate tensions further.
On Saturday, Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian urged Israel to stop attacks on Gaza warning that otherwise it would expand to other parts of Middle East if Hezbollah joined it. “Israel would suffer an earthquake,” he warned.
Whether this would have any bearing on Netanyahu’s offensive, time will tell.
Elected for his sixth term on December 29th 2022, Netanyahu is a far-right leader who is also on trial for corruption.
Netanyahu was born in Jaffa in 1949. His mother Tzila Segal was an Israeli-born Jew and father Benzion Netanyahu was from Poland. He was raised in Jerusalem and had his high school education in the US.
In 1967, Netanyahu joined the Israeli army and soon became an elite commando who served as captain during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. In 1982, Netanyahu was appointed deputy chief of mission at the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. In 1984, he was appointed Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations.
His political career began when he was appointed as deputy foreign minister in 1988 in the cabinet of then Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. He became the chairman of the Likud party in 1993, which he lost to Ariel Sharon and regained in 2005. He served as the PM of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and a record 12-year tenure from 2009 to 2021.
ALSO READ: Israel-Hamas war LIVE | Gaza death toll rises to 2,215 including 724 children: ministry Follow channel on WhatsApp
