"Frightened tyrant"

Netanyahu finished? Expert: “It’s over”

(Bild: AP)

"It's over for Bibi," political scientist Emmanuel Navon is certain. In his three decades in power, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political career has often been declared over. But now it seems that the days of "Bibi", as he is commonly known in Israel, are indeed numbered. Thousands of people in Israel are demonstrating daily against Netanyahu's conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip. 

Criticism from allies is also growing louder. Following the death of seven humanitarian aid workers in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke of an "unconscionable" attack and an "inevitable consequence of the way this war is being waged". Netanyahu, on the other hand, showed no sympathy: "This is what happens in war", he commented on the deaths of the aid workers.

"This time it's different"
"Netanyahu has often been laid to rest politically and has picked himself up again," says political scientist Navon, himself once a member of Netanyahu's Likud party. "But this time it's different because of October 7. It's no longer the same country."

The protests against Netanyahu and his conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip are growing louder.(Bild: AFP)

Only four percent of Israelis still trust their head of government, according to a survey at the end of last year. The once powerful Netanyahu is not only politically but also physically ailing. "He is 74 years old, does no sport, has a very difficult job and had a pacemaker fitted six months ago," summarizes Navon.

Also physically damaged
In a televised speech on Saturday, Netanyahu appeared frail, pale and distracted. Even his former minister and party colleague Limor Livnat called the appearance "catastrophic". The head of government looked "like a frightened tyrant", wrote the left-wing daily Haaretz. When he left the hospital in Jerusalem on Tuesday after a hernia operation, Netanyahu looked even worse.

The harshest critics are the families of the hostages
Among the harshest critics of the head of government are the families of the 134 hostages still being held captive by the radical Palestinian organization in the Gaza Strip. Einav Zangauker, whose son was abducted, compared Netanyahu to a "pharaoh, a butcher of the firstborn" at a rally in front of the parliament in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening.

There were violent protests in Israel for the fourth night in a row.(Bild: AP)

It was the fourth night of protests in a row. The relatives of the hostages joined forces with anti-government demonstrators who took to the streets for nine months last year to prevent the controversial judicial reforms.

"He doesn't care about anyone"
General Reuven Benkler is also demonstrating. The 65-year-old returned from retirement to serve in the north after the cruel Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. "The hostages won't come home as long as Bibi is in power," he says, accusing Netanyahu of dragging out the war in the Gaza Strip to keep himself in power: "He doesn't care about anyone but himself."

Despite the growing anger at the head of government, his party has so far stuck by Netanyahu. Navon compares Netanyahu's influence on the Likud with that of former US President Donald Trump on the Republicans. "The Likud MPs are terrified of being punished in the next primaries by Bibi, his wife and his son, who decide everything," says the Tel Aviv University professor. "People's political lives depend on him."

Graphic: The balance of power in the Israeli parliament

Meanwhile, Netanyahu's right-wing coalition is lurching from one crisis to the next, and prosecutors are pressing ahead with the corruption proceedings against Netanyahu despite the war. And on Tuesday, for the second time in four days, demonstrators attempted to break through police barriers on the way to the head of government's house.

With his policy of divide and rule, Netanyahu has been able to stay in office longer than any other Israeli head of government, analyzes political scientist Navon. Only with him would the country be safe, he had led Israelis to believe - a promise that proved to be hollow on October 7. "You have nurtured Hamas and made it big," the hostage Zangauker accuses Netanyahu at the demonstration on Tuesday evening, earning thunderous applause: "It's all your fault, you are the traitor."