Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu started his war on Gaza basking in popular adoration and ended it hounded by critics, including current allies. When Operation Protective Edge began 17 July, Netanyahu promised the public to weaken Hamas, stop it from firing rockets, and restore peace to south Israel. But after seven weeks of warfare, during which rockets fired from Gaza targeted parts of Israel and settlers from areas bordering Gaza fled their homes, the prime minister saw his popularity plummet in the polls. Now Netanyahu is under attack from rightwing and leftwing politicians alike: the leftists accuse him of starting a needless war while the ultra-nationalists blame him for not continuing the war. Once the guns fell silent, with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire announced on the night of 26 August, the once-popular Netanyahu had few friends left. With his coalition on the verge of collapse, Netanyahu's political future is in the balance, said Palestinian analyst Akram Atallah. “The offensive on Gaza showed the limitations of Netanyahu's popularity. He may be a skilled communicator and a first-class PR person but he also lacks charisma and decisiveness, in war as in peace,” he added. Former President Shimon Peres once likened Netanyahu to someone who wants to walk “through the raindrops without getting wet,” Attalah remarked. The Gaza confrontation showed how meagre Netanyahu's military experience is, and how indecisive he is under pressure. Operation Protective Edge, lasting from 7 July to 26 August, left 2,145 Palestinians dead and 11,000 injured, and caused large-scale damage to homes and infrastructure. Israel lost 67 soldiers and four civilians. One foreign worker also died. “Netanyahu continues to face criticism from his coalition partners who accuse him of indecision and lack of courage,” said Atallah. One of Netanyahu's main critics is Danny Danon, who was deputy defence minister until the prime minister sacked him in mid-July for saying that the government was taking “weak” decisions on Gaza. According to Atallah, Netanyahu went into the war in Gaza under pressure from the far right in his party. “In the Likud, there are extremist groups that rose in the ranks since the last internal elections, having defeated Netanyahu's candidates,” Atallah said. Members of these groups are the ones who wanted the war on Gaza to continue. A public poll published by Haaretz after the ceasefire showed that 52 per cent of Israelis expressed satisfaction with Netanyahu's performance during the war, while 40 per cent voiced dissatisfaction. In the last public poll prior to this, satisfaction with Netanyahu's performance was as high as 77 per cent. Atallah believes that the current coalition may not last long. “The coalition is far from stable. Recent polls point to a rise in the popularity of Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Yisrael Beiteinu, and Naftali Bennet, leader of the Jewish Home. Both men belong to Israel's far right,” he said. According to Atallah, both Lieberman and Bennett will most likely try to disrupt the current coalition in order to force early elections. “Lieberman is aiming for prime minister while Bennett wants more leverage in decision making,” Atallah said. One day after the ceasefire agreement was declared, Netanyahu told a news conference in Jerusalem that Israel hadn't accepted any of Hamas demands. “No airport, no port, no salaries, no [release of] Shalit abductors,” the prime minister told a television station. Repeating the argument he made before the war, Netanyahu told President Mahmoud Abbas to choose between Hamas and “peace with Israel.” “I believe it the right thing for Abu Mazen [Abbas] to do is to abandon Hamas, a group that doesn't only call for our destruction but calls for his downfall, a group that tried to oust him in the past,” Netanyahu said. Israeli analysts highlighted the fact that Netanyahu accepted the ceasefire without discussing it in the mini-cabinet. This, some said, was a sign that the prime minister was less than sure that the cabinet would support the ceasefire. In response, Netanyahu said he consulted with the defence minister and the army chief of staff, and that he had a mandate from the government to take decisions concerning the ceasefire. The Egyptian-brokered truce was called a “victory” by the Palestinians. Likewise, Netanyahu is telling the Israeli public that it was a victory for Israel. But not everyone is convinced, not even inside Netanyahu's Likud Party. A prominent Likud official told Maariv that the prime minister is trying to market a “non-existent” victory. It would have been better for Netanyahu to simply explain the high price Israel would have had to pay to reoccupy Gaza, the same official remarked. On his Facebook page, Lieberman slammed the ceasefire with Hamas and voiced his opposition to any “deal” with the group. According to Lieberman, Israel must try to overthrow Hamas and open the way for a moderate leadership to take over in Gaza. Naftali Bennett, Israel's minister of economy and leader of the Jewish Home, said that both Hamas and President Abbas were to blame for the situation in Gaza. Writing on the Israeli news website Walla!, analyst Omri Nahmias said that Netanyahu was reaping what he had sown. For years he told Israelis that he intended to liquidate Hamas, only to now make a deal with the very organisation he recently likened to the Islamic State. No one can blame the Israelis for feeling cheated, Omri wrote.
