Defiant Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on opposition to Palestinian statehood, deepening the divide with Israel’s closest international allies, as cracks in his wartime “unity” government became increasingly evident.
Anger with Netanyahu is also increasingly visible on the streets, even though there is broad public support for the war. On Saturday, protesters gathered in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Caesarea and Kfar Saba, some calling for bolder action to secure the release of hostages, and others demanding the prime minister step down.
One in Jerusalem held a placard that read: “Mothers’ cry: we will not sacrifice our children in the war to save the rightwing.”
Over the weekend, Netanyahu sparred publicly – if indirectly – with US President Joe Biden, who for months has offered Israel almost unconditional support for its war in Gaza, at considerable political cost to his own administration, both in America and beyond.
Netanyahu’s spokesman claimed that in a phone call with Biden, the Israeli leader told the US president that his country’s security needs left no space for a sovereign Palestinian state.
“In his conversation with President Biden, prime minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that, after Hamas is destroyed, Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty,” a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
It was a barely veiled shot at Biden, who just hours earlier had said the same conversation left him confident an independent Palestine was feasible when Netanyahu was in power.
The two men had spoken for the first time in nearly a month after Netanyahu alarmed his allies by ruling out an independent Palestinian state in a press conference.
He said even after fighting ends in Gaza, Israel would need to keep security control of all land west of the River Jordan. “That’s a necessary condition. It clashes with the principle of sovereignty but what can you do.”
In London, the shadow foreign secretary David Lammy was strongly critical of Netanyahu. “The Israeli prime minister’s rejection of a Palestinian state is morally wrong. Practically wrong. And against the interests of all people, Palestinian and Israeli,” Lammy said in a speech to the Fabian Society conference, during which he was interrupted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Lammy added: “The peaceful quest for a Palestinian state is a just cause. As Keir Starmer has said, it is the undeniable right of the Palestinian people, and the only path to guarantee a just and lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.”
A British government spokesman described Netanyahu’s comments as “disappointing”. “The UK’s position is very clear. A two-state solution, with a viable and sovereign Palestinian state living alongside a safe and secure Israel, is the best route to lasting peace.”
The US has repeatedly said that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state is the only path to rebuilding Gaza and ensuring Israel’s long-term security.
Critics said the dispute proved a useful distraction from growing domestic tension about the limited achievements of Israel’s campaign in Gaza over three months into the war, the suffering of more than 100 Israelis still held hostage by Hamas, and the lack of a long-term plan for governing the enclave.
“This war has no purpose and no future, but prolonging it is [Netanyahu’s] way of postponing engagement with the question of responsibility,” the Haaretz newspaper quoted a cabinet member saying.
“As long as the protest [movement] is dealing with the hostages’ return, the protest that he fears, against the government, is delayed.”
After more than three months, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, displaced nearly 2 million people and reduced much of Gaza to ruins. Hunger and disease stalk crowded camps and shelters.
Yet Israeli forces have yet to capture or kill any of the group’s leaders inside Gaza, and Hamas recently launched a barrage of rockets from northern Gaza, where Israel had said the group’s fighting ability had largely been destroyed.
Israel has had more success beyond Israel’s borders; one top official, Saleh al Arouri, was assassinated by a drone strike in Beirut in early January. A senior Hezbollah leader was killed soon after.
On Saturday, a strike in the Syrian capital, Damascus, also killed five Iranian military advisers, destroying a building in a tightly guarded neighbourhood, and a second attack in southern Lebanon killed two people, local media reported.
The Israeli public broadly supports the war. Less than a month ago, polls from the Israeli Institute of Democracy showed that three-quarters of Jewish Israelis opposed the US demand to shift to a less intense phase of the war in Gaza.
But they are increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu’s leadership. Critics include a member of Netanyahu’s own war cabinet, Gadi Eisenkot, a former chief of the Israeli military whose views carry particular moral authority because his 25-year-old son was killed fighting in Gaza.
Eisenkot broke ranks this week to say “total victory” over Hamas was not likely and only a ceasefire deal could bring hostages home. When asked if Netanyahu might be prolonging the war for political gain, he paused before replying: “I hope not.”
Official investigations into military and security failures in the run-up to the Hamas 7 October attacks, which are currently on hold pending the end of the intense phase of fighting, are likely to be very uncomfortable for Netanyahu. He also faces several long-running corruption cases.
Eisenkot is widely believed to be aligned in his views with Benny Gantz, another former general and defence minister on the five-member war cabinet. Netanyahu, his current defence minister Yoav Gallant and strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer are the other members, and want to keep on fighting.
Netanyahu’s coalition government includes far-right parties who are adamantly opposed to a Palestinian state, or any let-up in the intensity of the attacks on Gaza.
The concessions needed to secure the release of hostages, including freeing many Palestinian prisoners, would probably prompt them to leave, and collapse his government.
There was a consensus after 7 October that Israel could not waste energy going to the polls when it needed to focus on the war. Now, most of Israel expects elections this year; the question is how soon, and what will finally splinter the unity government.
Most polling shows Netanyahu’s government would lose power to an opposition coalition if voters turned out in Israel today. But Channel 14 has repeatedly found Netanyahu would only lose a handful of seats, and might be able to cling to power.
