"There is no trust" in the Israeli government, war cabinet minister says as he calls for elections
Israel needs fresh elections because the public no longer has trust in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership, Israeli war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot said. “We need to go to the polls and have an election in the next few months, in order to renew the trust as currently there is no trust,” Eisenkot told Israeli television news on Thursday evening. “The state of Israel is a democracy and needs to ask itself, after such a serious event, how do we go forward with a leadership that is responsible for such an absolute failure?”
He also dismissed concerns over holding elections in the country while it’s at war. “Lack of trust among the public in its government is no less severe than lack of unity during a war,” he explained. “The situation in Gaza is such that the goals of the war have not been achieved, but the war is no longer happening. There is a relatively limited Order of battle, there's a different order of operation,” he added.
Those who claim Hamas was fully defeated in northern Gaza "are not telling the truth," Israeli minister says
Israeli war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot appeared to criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, saying those who claim Hamas was fully defeated in northern Gaza “are not telling the truth.”
“Those who say that there was a major blow and demolition of the capabilities in the north of the strip are telling the truth. Those who say that there was an absolute defeat [of Hamas] and lack of will and ability, are not telling the truth,” Eisenkot told Israeli television news on Thursday evening, just hours after Netanyahu said Israel’s military campaign would continue until it achieved “complete victory” over Hamas.
Netanyahu’s strategy will leave Israel in "Gaza quagmire," ex-prime minister warns
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has called for fresh elections to restore confidence in the country’s leadership and warned that Benjamin Netanyahu’s current strategy risks alienating the United States and leaving Israel “mired in the Gaza quagmire.” Calling Netanyahu’s refusal to publicly discuss plans for “the day after” period following the end of combat in Gaza “unconscionable,” Barak said a lack of planning was damaging the war effort and the country’s future diplomatic relations.
“The IDF cannot optimize the probability of winning when there is no defined political goal. In the absence of a realistic goal, we will end up mired in the Gaza quagmire, fighting simultaneously in Lebanon and in the West Bank, eroding the American backing and endangering the Abraham Accords and the peace agreements with Egypt and with Jordan,” Barak wrote in an op-ed published in Haaretz Thursday.
Barak added that a proposal from the Biden administration in November that would see a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority take control of Gaza after the war offered the “only practical blueprint” to move forward and would require Israel to take part in future talks “toward a two-state solution.”
Netanyahu on Thursday appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state, a statement that could contribute to growing tensions between Washington and Jerusalem. The apparent rejection of a Palestinian state is at odds with the stated position of one of Netanyahu’s staunchest allies, US President Joe Biden, who has long advocated for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Majority of Israelis support war on Gaza
The voices on the streets in Israel are mainly divided into three categories.
One, there are the massive protests in Tel Aviv drawing over 100,000 people calling for the return of the captives and for this government to strike a deal.
Then, there are the anti-war protests calling for Netanyahu to resign and for new elections soon, in the next few months. These are very difficult to get permission for people to get on to the streets, but they are happening.
So there is this growing sentiment that protesters are not happy with the leadership and the way the government is dealing with the captives issue, in particular. They want a deal and they want them back.
But two-thirds of the Israelis, more than the majority certainly, do support this war.
Police detain a protester during a rally by Israeli anti-war and anti-government demonstrators in Tel Aviv on January 16
New Polling Shows How Much Global Support Israel Has Lost
https://time.com/6559293/morning-consult-israel-global-opinion/
Net favorability—the percentage of people viewing Israel positively after subtracting the percentage viewing it negatively—dropped globally by an average of 18.5 percentage points between September and December, decreasing in 42 out of the 43 countries polled.
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The U.S. remains the only rich country that still had net positive views of Israel. Net favorability dropped just 2.2 percentage points, from a net favorability of 18.2 to a net favorability of 16 from September to December.
Washington's support for Israel carries a cost in global public opinion, however, particularly in Arab countries, the surveys show. In Egypt, the U.S. went from having a positive favorability of 41.1 to a negative favorability of -14.9 from September to December. In Saudi Arabia, the U.S. saw a similar trend, dropping from a positive favorability of 12.2 to -10.5 over the same time period.
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