Divide and ruleWith his coalition reeling from crisis to crisis, enemies seem to be circling as never before around the leader of Israel’s most right-wing government ever.Prosecutors are pushing ahead with a corruption trial against him despite the war, and protesters tried to break through police barriers to get to his home on Tuesday for the second time in four days.Even his defence minister, Likud stalwart Yoav Gallant, is defying him over the deeply divisive issue of ultra-Orthodox Jews escaping compulsory military service even as the war in Gaza rages and another looms with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.Netanyahu has long relied on the support of religious parties to govern.”Excusing a whole community when the military needs so much more manpower is unforgivable,” General Reuven Benkler told AFP at an anti-government rally Monday.The 65-year-old came out of retirement to serve in the north after the Hamas attack which resulted in 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,916 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.Benkler said the “hostages will not come home while Bibi is still in power”, adding that Netanyahu was dragging out the war in Gaza to prolong his rule — a claim endlessly repeated at the protests.”He doesn’t give a damn about anyone else apart from himself.”Netanyahu’s three-decade hold over Israeli politics was based on divide and rule, Navon said. And his claim that only he could keep the country safe, October 7 shattered that.His promise of elections in 2026 was “delusional”, the analyst said. “But protesters’ demands for them now are also unrealistic. The end of the year when the war has been won in Gaza and the north is more likely,” he added.On Tuesday night, hostage mother Zangauker accused Netanyahu of letting Israel’s guard fall, declaring at a mass protest to thunderous cheers: “It’s all your fault — 240 were kidnapped on your watch.””You nurtured and raised Hamas,” she added, and yet “you call us traitors (for protesting during a war) when you are the traitor.”
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