By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
SvennoJ on 17 June 2024
Edit Thread

Difficult to convert public anger into Netanyahu government’s removal

Amir Oren, a columnist with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, says anger against the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is increasing from tens of thousands of Israelis displaced in the north because of eight months of cross-border fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Along with anti-war demonstrators and families of those captured and taken to Gaza, pressure continues to mount on the government. But whether it can bring the government down is unlikely in the immediate future, he said.

“Public sentiment is now against the Netanyahu government, some three-quarters of the public has had enough of Netanyahu. They want him out. But there’s no way to convert it into parliamentary power because he still has his 64-seat member coalition intact,” Oren told Al Jazeera.

“Until such time there are fissures in this coalition, the cries of the hostage families and [northern Israel] dislocated will have no effect.”

Demonstrations demanding captive deal ongoing in Israel

    This is the second day of what several protest groups are calling “a week of disruption”.

    We’re now seeing a lot of demonstrations outside the Israeli parliament. Earlier in the day, there were families of Israeli captives sitting on one of the committees inside the parliament, saying they are fed up with a lack of leadership and an absence of decision-making.

    And that’s exactly what protesters are calling for – new leadership and for elections to be held immediately.

    Demonstrator demands have gotten greater as these protests have gone on throughout the war. Not only do they want new leadership, new elections, and for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to be overthrown, but they ultimately want a ceasefire deal that would bring back the remaining Israeli captives held in Gaza.



    Protesters demonstrate against Israel’s government near the parliament or Knesset

     

    Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid takes part in anti-government protests

    Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid joined mass demonstrations in front of the Israeli parliament or Knesset in Jerusalem, according to footage on social media.

    ‘Combat soldiers refuse to be killed because of Bibi’

    Tens of thousands of people who say they’ve lost faith in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have protested in Jerusalem, calling for immediate elections and an end to the war on Gaza.

    “We came to demonstrate again, the 50th time, we are here, in Tel Aviv, everywhere, to get rid of this corrupted government, that does not release the hostages, that runs the war in a clumsy way, and is responsible for the worst terror attack on us since the Holocaust ” said protester Dror Katzman.

    Protesters marched from outside the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to Netanyahu’s private residence carrying Israeli flags and chanting anti-government slogans. “Because of you we are dying, get out of our lives,” one sign proclaimed with a photo of Netanyahu and bloody handprints.

    Others referenced the 11 soldiers killed in Gaza over the weekend, one of the deadliest for Israeli soldiers in months, holding a sign that read, “Combat soldiers refuse to be killed because of Bibi”, using the nickname for Netanyahu.


    Just like Putin

    PM Netanyahu’s ‘interest is in having a slow-attrition war’

    Benjamin Netanyahu’s move to disband his war cabinet provides him leeway to draw out the war on Gaza to stay in power, one analyst says.

    Netanyahu’s critics accuse him of delaying because an end to the war would mean an investigation into the government’s failures on October 7 and raise the likelihood of new elections at a time when the prime minister’s popularity is low.

    “It means that he will make all the decisions himself, or with people he trusts who don’t challenge him,” said Gideon Rahat, chairman of the political science department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

    “And his interest is in having a slow-attrition war.”