Can Benjamin Netanyahu resist revolt against his leadership? | Inside Story

calls are growing louder in Israel for the resignation of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and for an election to be held many who were dissatisfied before the war on Gaza began are even more unhappy now with how the country is being led so can Netanyahu be toppled from what many say is his disastrous leadership this is Inside Story [Music] hello welcome to the program I'm Adrien finigan he's the leader of Israel's war of genocide in Gaza he's facing increasing Israeli anger for failing to bring captives home and he's also on trial for fraud and bribery prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under growing pressure both from politicians within his own government and from world leaders increasingly uneasy at the ever Rising death doll and destruction in Gaza he's long been a controversial leader provoking months of mass protests last year against his changes to weaken the powers of the Supreme Court he's facing similar protests now with thousands rallying Nationwide on Saturday to demand early elections Netanyahu is dismissing the demands for an election to be brought forward from their scheduled date in 2026 so can he resist the revolt against his leadership and is he continuing the war in Gaza to try to stay in power we'll be mulling all of that and more with our guests in just a moment but first Laura Khan begins our coverage Street confrontations between Israeli police and protesters in Tel Aviv and a rallying cry from thousands angry about how prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is conducting the war they want him to resign like to say to the government that you had your time you ruined everything that you can ruin now it's the time for the people to correct all the things all the bad things that you have done in the past 20 years almost protest started at the outset of Israel's war on Gaza with family members of captives being held there demanding the government prioritizes their release over the military campaign but as protests swalled demands shifted for the country to hold early elections not scheduled for another two years but prime minister Netanyahu has not changed his stance reiterating his Mantra that the only solution is military our policy is to liberate and return captives through military pressure we have brought back 120 of them so far we will continue until all of them are released protests are now being backed by trade unions powerful enough to grind the economy to a standstill if their demands are not met on Saturday the head of the hit Union said Netanyahu took us to the edge to a place where we should not have been we at a dead end and there's only one way out and that's elections Netanyahu is also under legal pressure on trial for fraud bribery and breach of trust an opinion poll from the Israeli democracy Institute shows netanyahu's popularity is plummeting with only 15% of Israelis wanting him to stay in power there's a division two within his own War cabinet rival Benny Gant won almost twice the amount of support in the same poll Saturday's protest which was the largest since Israel's war on Gaza followed months of huge demonstrations last year Israelis marched against judicial reforms proposed by Netanyahu and its hard-right Coalition the so-called reasonableness standard bill was passed in July after the opposition boycotted the vote leading to yet more anger on the streets however this bill was nullified by the Supreme Court in January Netanyahu is also facing pressure overseas the international court of justice at the hag last month ordered Israel to take immediate action to stop acts of genocide in Gaza and months of solidarity marches for Palestinians in various cities including London New York and Mexico City all demanding an immediate ceasefire and justice for Palestine in Gaza Israel forces continue their killing campaign obliterating entire neighborhoods with air and artillery strikes leaving No Escape for Palestinians and leaving many questioning whether the war is the only thing keeping an increasingly unpopular leader in power Laura Khan for Inside Story Al jazer [Music] all right let's bring in our guests for today's discussion from Tel Aviv we're joined by Orin ziv a journalist and commentator with plus 972 magazine kalanu is just 50 kilom North of there that's where tabat Abu Ras joins us from he's the co-executive director of the Abraham initiatives and a prominent advocate for the rights of Arab Israelis and also in Tel Aviv his political analyst and journalist Akiva Elder warm welcome to you all gentlemen AKA let's start with you um we got some idea from Laura's report there but why the calls for an ear early election why are people so dissatisfied with the current government are are those calls likely to be heed is the government under any obligation to bring forward the date of a general election uh it's hard to uh decide where to start Aran first of all uh your reporter just mentioned uh the protest that started a year ago over the judicial reform now uh nobody still until this very moment promised us that this is over this uh uh attempt to uh actually undermine the pillars of the Israeli democracy number two it's uh very clear now to uh most of the Israelis that Nan is a burden they believed for many years um I think that uh the the wakeup call started with his trial with the scandals that uh surrounded him in h 2018 and it seems that since then uh it's all about his own political freedom and political future uh personal freedom and political future you know his trial is uh still continuing um he will probably be subpoena will have to testify and uh there are more and more Israelis who think that netan has taken 10 million Israeli hostage and he's willing to undermine our relationship with the United States he wants to gain time to wait until the American elections maybe president Trump will will save him and uh what's happening now is netan is using the uh anxiety after October 7th over security over uh the need for Unity and the person who is a master of incitement it is the middle name is now bringing incitements even against the families of the Israeli captives and is dividing Israel between two camps one Camp believes that the lives of the captives is more important than anything else and netan is responsible for what happened to them in October and netan has to do everything to bring them back home and the other camp that uh is mainly Nan's fans in the media in the Coalition is inciting against against those families telling us the story that uh they are actually undermining his attempt to a total Victory to win this war against the Hamas so now you can see in Israel two separate camps that have very little in common given us a lot to to chew over there AKA tab Abu Ras um let's start with with with those claims that Netanyahu is continuing the war in order to to stay in power and delay his trial for fraud and bribery how credible are are those claims and how has the war changed Israeli politics yes the war has had an impact extreme impact on the Israeli Society it's a but still it's a wake up call for the Israelis to reconsider their political Paradigm still the Israeli Society enlarg in a post trauma it cannot believe that it's happened H after all we are talking about the longest war the most expensive war in the same times the most divisive war and now there is a confrontation with the International Community Israel in large it's in a very bad shape right now and this is why Netanyahu lived with very extreme uh rightwing even racist Coalition uh without the Israeli public several segments are they are not with netan not supporting the government yet they are supporting the ER the release of the hostages so the right now I believe that net is put in the between the Rock and the Hardy place in one hand he's is looking for an achievements in Gaza but this war H it's not it's not bringing any achievements almost any achievements in Gaza on the other hand we can see that the killing the civilians atrocities that is committed every day in Gaza it's really bringing more International pressure on Israel and also now from The Alliance United States and European countries and also the now the icj I I I we have to witness that we see that there is a kind of pressure internal pressure within the Israeli Society is built up right now but it's still it's so small we don't see the demonstration in t Aviv it's really it's far from being the or to compare it them with the demonstration took place prior to the 7th October but I believe this will build up and the changing the change of political leadership in Israel is imminent Oren ziv uh he's survived many previous predictions of his downfall if there were an election in Israel today would you bet money on Netanyahu not being prime minister afterwards senior members of his own party says that he won't but you can't put anything past him can you yes exactly I think this is exactly the reason and netan is aligning to the extreme right to benar and smri because in the beginning people thought when guns and more Centrist figures joined this government they thought it's for Netanyahu to promote a deal that we knew that the extreme right would not support that we include the release of Palestinian political prisoners so the family of the hostages and other members of the public had a hope that the fact that guns and Isa Isen cot are in the government could affect netan to go to the Ste and to give him some Support also laid announced that he would support from outside this kind of deal but now it seems that netan understand that if there's a hostages deal the extreme right will leave the government and maybe later also Ben Gans after the deal is completed so he decided to align completely to the extreme right talking about the fact that only military force would release the hostages something that hasn't proved itself in the the last 130 days and it seem Nan is insisting not going to elections and just dragging the next two years with his extreme Partners on the other side of course we have the protest yesterday there was the biggest protest so far on 10,000 people we have to understand that the isra Republic is still in in shock and many people felt uncomfortable to protest during war but as they saw netan is going back to dealing with local politics and survival mode they thought it's a time to go out not only for the hostages but also to demand the government to resign and as as I see this those protests will also grow and what we're hearing from sources in the police in the Tel Aviv police is that this time they will not allow and we've seen it yesterday they will not allow blocking of the highway or marches and so on so also yesterday we've seen some small clashes but as I understand the police is trying to align with Minister Ben and and show that they are loyal to him will not allow the mass blockades we've seen a year ago AA um Tabet touched upon uh the makeup of of netanyahu's Coalition uh government at the moment the most right-wing in Israel's history to what extent is he being constrained right now by his Coalition Partners in his decision making on the war what do those parties want especially those those two small far-right parties could they actually bring down the Netanyahu government if he agrees to anything that they don't like actually he made the decision that uh uh he is willing to confront the International Community to say no to the president of the United States who has his own domestic challenges as we know and uh just this morning few hours ago he passed a resolution in the cabinet that is a clear message to the United United States saying mind your own business Israel is not willing to hear about a two-state solution or a Palestinian State um and what he's trying to do right now is to dictate a new kind of message to the campaign he's actually in the campaign right now we're talking about the uh protest in the street he started while he's calling for Unity and this is not the time for elections and this is time to hold hands um he is telling us that he is the only one who can stop and uh undermine any attempt to force a two-state solution and we know the Paradigm that uh President Biden has put already on the table uh not formally but it's a Palestinian State it's peace with Saudi Arabia and it comes also with a deal to release the hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza so what Netanyahu is doing he is not willing to give a green light to the deal with the Hamas over the hostages he's not willing to give a deadline to the war he is refusing to put forward any exit strategy and uh uh let's see what the Israeli uh Civil Society will say because he's got his 64 block the CET is also taken hostage by him by the government uh guns is in kind of Catch 22 uh he's doomed if he stays he's doomed if he leaves in the time of War actually the polls I'm sorry I'm sorry to I'm sorry to interrupt you AA but I just you you picked up on on on on something there uh when you said that that Netanyahu is is refusing to make a decision to what extent is that actually politically very clever in uh by deciding uh or by not deciding he's actually deciding by uh remaining ambiguous and letting it drag on that actually benefits him politically yeah it uh it seems that his polls are showing that uh the Israelis are very concerned about the the even possibility that there will be a Palestinian state next door in Gaza in the West Bank East Jerusalem Ramadan is coming and uh people are talking about escalation between Israelis and Palestinians what he's doing best is playing the Zero Sum game what's good for us must be bad for the Palestinian and vice versa and this is working so I wouldn't rush to bury him uh if the issue will be Palestinian state or not and guns uh and even lapid are know about it they didn't say that they support the uh blueprint of President Biden because it's not popular Palestinian State and netan is putting himself he did it with Iran and you know how he ended but he uh has a very good record in uh destroying any hope for even negotiations on a two-state solution tabas picking up on on what AKA was saying there U when he was quoting uh Netanyahu speaking on on Saturday the last thing we need right right now is elections we need Unity right now if there's one thing Hamas would like it's a political fight which would further divide his Israelis he said Israel will not agree to hamas's terms for a ceasefire and hostage swap he called them insane but does the Israeli electorate agree with him well you know it's very important just to focus in the issue that Israeli society as a whole Israeli political M doesn't have a clear Visions they have several challenges a challenge of lack of leadership in Israel H and Second Challenge the peace Vision I believe that Israel doesn't have a clear strategy regarding the Palestinian people and what to do with the territories accept to manage the conflict and to try to change reality on the ground and even if we change nany and I believe that 2024 will will will will be an election national election and the I believe that Gans will be the leader of the the coming leader actually to replace Natan however Gans will build a a Unity Coalition that consist of the liid party the haric party haric Al parties rightwing and left wing because the Israeli society as a whole need needs a a Unity the the issue of unity is so important for Israeli so that I believe that what we need really a vision for peace I think Israel should rush to join the International Community and to try to offer a hope for the Israelis not only for the Palestinians and to go for a real peace with the Palestinian it's now or never I believe that is the survival of the state of Israel depends on peace and leaving aside Jewish Supremacy in out of the region okay so in Israeli conduct actually should be more respectful to the Palestinian to the issues and should return to the Saudi initiatives peace initiatives this is the right thing to do unfortunately there is no real leadership in Israel that can adopt the Saudi Sai PE initiative right now even if the government support that just before I put that to orand Tabet briefly tell us how powerful a Lobby uh the Arab Israeli vote is voters are there in Israel yes I think it's very powerful we are consist of 20% of the total population and we can we are in favor of political partnership we would like to to be part of the political process in Israel and the nobody can benefit from peace between our country Israel and our people the Palestinian more than us I believe that we are paying a double price being Israelis Israeli citizens and being Palestinians in during the last few actually months during the war we we were silenced by the Israeli system and we are interrogated so this is why we would like to be part of any anti nany government we would like to be part to overthrow the current government yet we are really concerned about the future government hopefully will be a peaceful government that will go for peace and make peace with our people the Palestinians all right picking up on what tabat aburas was saying there the survival of Israel uh depends upon peace is that something that that the the Israeli electorate would agree with so unfortunately the vest majority of the public supports the war a lot of them consume only Israel media so they're not really aware of the horrific reality in Gaza the casualty the devastation the the all the Gaza Strip that is destroyed literally destroyed I do think that if there is some hope is the fact that the protesters we through yesterday in the street and they're not against the world they're against the government some of them are talking about the the lack of speaking about the day after Netanyahu refuses and his Coalition refus totally to speak about the day after what will happen and some in inside the protesters against the government you have a small group that has of radical leftwing Israelis the Jewish Israelis who've been protesting since they won against the war against the genocide against the massacre and maybe a Connecting Point between this small group and the vast majority of the Protestant that are calling for election against netan is this idea that Netanyahu and his coalition refus to take talk about day after and and and the public even the leftwing Centrist public who come to this demonstration even if they don't openly oppos the war they do understand that there has to be some solution some diplomatic or political solution that Nan and his Coalition are refusing to speak about and this might give some hope for a political change a we've got just a few minutes left what will post Netanyahu politics in Israel look like will there do you think be radical change uh after this war and everything that the country has been through or would it be more of the same led by different faces actually Adrian it's very easy just uh look at uh the uh political map and uh the Israeli policy uh on the regarding the conflict palestini Israeli conflict the year before headed by Bennett and laid the Israeli public I think is more mature than uh the leaders as tab just said I think that uh the mass majority of the Israelis understand that we must reach an end to the conflict and end of War how many more Wars can we handle um but uh even if you look at uh the possibility of a government led by guns on his right there are people who bypass nanal from the right like gon who were part of the liud and the radical part of the leud so I I believe that the Israeli Peace camp and the Palestinian peace camp both in Israel and in the occupied territories will have to work very hard to make a difference it's not just changing the leadership it's changing the priorities the agenda and the the moral of the Israelis Tabit I've got about two minutes left I need a very brief answer for you because I want to hear a little bit more from aurin to you were you were nodding vigorously there yeah well I I I second akba I agree with akba but still I think we need International Help without International help I don't want to use the word impose but I think to pressure Israel to try to obey the first of all the international law it's so important to stop this messy War killing civilians every day and also to try to come up with a a solution peace solution that that based on the establishment of the Palestinian independent and sovereign state alongside Israel I know that netan is in a battle of survival but he will lose everything Ain very briefly final word from you are these are these protests you think set to grow in the coming weeks definitely they're going to grow they're going to get bigger as as we've seen in the past they're going to meet with police brutality police repression and this will encourage more people to go out and and join them and hopefully also to relate to the war itself and not only to the elections and against netan there gentlemen I'm afraid we must end it many thanks indeed to you all for taking part today Orin ziv tabat aburas and AKA Eldar thank you for watching you can see the program again at any time by going to the website it's al.com for further discussion you're welcome to join us at our Facebook page you'll find that at facebook.com AJ insidestory and of course you can join the conversation on X our handle there at AJ inside story from me Adrien finegan and the team here in Doha thanks for watching we'll see you again bye for [Music] now

Channel: Al Jazeera English

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Keywords: Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bring them home now, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Israel Hamas war, Israel gaza war, Israel war on Gaza, Israel war on hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli army, Israeli cabinet, Israeli government, Israeli politics, Netanyahu cabinet, Palestine, al Jazeera, al jazeera English, al jazeera live, al jazeera video, aljazeera English, aljazeera latest, aljazeera live, aljazeera live news, gaza war, latest news

Id: wTvHcpcdYX4

Length: 28min 0sec (1680 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 18 2024