Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is at war on many fronts

But Netanyahu is also looking for trouble at home and much further afield. He recently disbanded his wartime “cabinet,” a small clique of officials that included more moderate political rivals who had banded together in “unity” to manage Israel’s response to the shocking October 7 Hamas terror attack in the south of the country. Disagreements over Netanyahu’s handling of the conflict and his pandering to Israel’s far right defeated the purpose of the body. The Israeli prime minister has clashed with Israel’s generals, and more and more public dissent has come from the top leadership.

And then there is President Biden, whom Netanyahu attacked earlier this week for allegedly denying weapons to Israel and thwarting its goal of completely defeating Hamas. Netanyahu’s broadside against the White House, which swept under the rug the enormous support the Biden administration has offered Israel, seemed designed to curry favor with his right-wing base and bolster Biden’s own Republican opponents, who seized the initiative and invited the polarizing Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress next month.

Netanyahu, a wily politician and Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, is trying to pull every lever at his disposal in an increasingly desperate bid to hold on to power. Domestic anger over his apparent unwillingness to agree to a ceasefire that would lead to the release of the last Israeli hostages held by Hamas has sparked new protests in cities across the country this week and calls for his resignation and new elections. New polls from the Pew Research Center have found that Netanyahu’s Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, is far more popular among Israelis than the prime minister himself.

Netanyahu insists that Israel must have the opportunity to eliminate Hamasalthough US officials believe that the group’s military capability is already significantly weakened. Many top experts also claim that Hamas cannot be completely defeated militarily unless there is a lasting political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This view is now also being shared at the highest levels of the Israeli military.

On Wednesday, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in an interview with local media: “Hamas cannot be destroyed. Hamas is an idea,” adding: “Anyone who thinks it can be made to disappear is mistaken.”

Hagari appears to be referring to Netanyahu and his allies further to the right, including far-right cabinet ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, whose support Netanyahu relies on to stay in power. The Israeli far right has vocally opposed possible post-war scenarios that would make concessions to the Palestinians – plans have been considered that would involve a Palestinian entity administering Gaza, funding reconstruction of the territory and a broader political process of reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. But the lack of a viable “day-after strategy” has angered the Israeli security establishment and many of Netanyahu’s centrist rivals.

“What we can do is create something new to replace Hamas,” Hagari said in his interview. “Who will it be? What will it be? That is for the political leadership to decide.”

Netanyahu does not seem to be interested in this decision. “Ben Gvir and Smotrich’s continued influence, even outside the war cabinet, was partly the reason for the resignations of war cabinet members Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot last week,” my colleagues wrote. “The two centrists said they joined the cabinet to ensure the war was conducted responsibly, but have since concluded that they cannot work with Netanyahu as long as he refuses to commit to a ‘day-after’ strategy for Gaza.”

For a section of the Israeli public, the prime minister’s political epitaph has already been written. “You have chosen your political survival over the people and the hostages,” Einav Zangauker, the mother of one of the hostages, told Israeli media addressing Netanyahu. “The guilt will follow you to the grave. You cannot escape it.”

But Netanyahu is an expert at defying all odds. His attack on Biden stunned the White House, whose top spokesman told reporters: “We generally don’t know what he’s talking about.”

The Biden administration has approved numerous arms shipments to Israel and even pressured wary Democrats in Congress not to block the delivery of that aid, even though the top UN human rights body has concluded that Israel may have “repeatedly violated” the laws of war by using massive explosives in densely populated areas. In accordance with U.S. law that reviews foreign governments’ use of American military aid, the Biden administration halted a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in May out of concern about the harm it would cause to Gaza’s civilian population. But Netanyahu seized on that delay to argue that the White House was undermining his war effort.

“Israel is at war on four fronts: with Hamas in Gaza, with the Houthis in Yemen, with Hezbollah in Lebanon and with Iran, which oversees operations,” noted Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel. “What is Netanyahu doing? He is attacking the United States based on a lie of his own making! The speaker and leader should withdraw his invitation to speak to Congress until he rescinds and apologizes.”

Whatever happens in July, Biden faces a difficult task in November: Left-wing anger over his unreserved support for Israel’s Gaza operation threatens to lose him the presidential election in key swing states. Left-wing critics of the White House are frustrated by his inability to stand up to Netanyahu and adequately protect innocent civilians in Gaza.

“Since October 7,” David Klion wrote in the Nation, “Biden has drawn red lines he has no intention of enforcing and has allowed Netanyahu to repeatedly humiliate him and get away with it, strengthening the Israeli prime minister both with his domestic constituency and with the American right, which could very well regain control of U.S. foreign policy as a result.”