{"id":31336,"date":"2024-04-20T15:35:12","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T15:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/20\/fears-over-iran-buoys-netanyahu-at-home-for-now\/"},"modified":"2024-04-20T15:35:12","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T15:35:12","slug":"fears-over-iran-buoys-netanyahu-at-home-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/20\/fears-over-iran-buoys-netanyahu-at-home-for-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Fears Over Iran Buoys Netanyahu at Home. For Now."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/20\/world\/20israel-netanyahu01\/20israel-netanyahu01-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Fears Over Iran Buoys Netanyahu at Home. For Now.\" title=\"Fears Over Iran Buoys Netanyahu at Home. For Now.\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel last October, the deadliest in Israeli history, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s political future has seemed bleak, with critics blaming him for the security failure and his poll ratings plummeting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But a confrontation between Israel and Iran this week \u2014 including on Friday when Israel retaliated against last weekend\u2019s missile barrage by Iran \u2014 may have helped change the dynamic, at least for the time being. Now, Mr. Netanyahu is in his strongest domestic position since the October attack, even as his global standing ebbs amid anger at the conduct of Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis was his best week since October,\u201d said Mazal Mualem, a biographer of Mr. Netanyahu. \u201cWe\u2019re all afraid of Iran, with all the nuclear forces that they may have. And that\u2019s the reason that, this week, we can see Bibi recovering,\u201d Ms. Mualem said, calling Mr. Netanyahu by his nickname.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s far-right coalition is still trailing the main opposition bloc in the polls, and he would still likely lose an election if it was called tomorrow. But the latest surveys show the gap has more than halved since October. His personal approval ratings have edged up to 37 percent, just five points fewer than his main rival, Benny Gantz \u2014 one of the smallest margins since the start of the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Analysts partly attribute this limited recovery to Israel\u2019s conflict with Iran, once a clandestine war that turned into an overt confrontation this month after Israel struck an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria, killing seven. The attack prompted Iran to respond with its first-ever direct attack on Israeli soil last weekend, and then Israel to retaliate in Iran on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At least for now, the tensions have shifted some domestic attention away from Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s perceived failings in the war against Hamas in Gaza, and played to Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s strengths.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israel\u2019s longest-serving prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu has for years presented himself to Israelis as the only politician with the experience and smarts to both stand up to Iran and cajole other countries into doing so, too. For years, he has called for the U.S. to take a tougher stance on Iran, most memorably in a speech to Congress in 2015 that angered the Obama administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some Israelis question Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s strategy in Gaza, where he is accused of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/05\/world\/middleeast\/netanyahu-israel-war-gaza.html\" title=\"\">dragging out<\/a> the war and delaying a transition of power to a new Palestinian leadership in order to prevent his government from collapsing. Far-right lawmakers who hold the balance of power in the coalition are pushing Mr. Netanyahu to occupy Gaza in perpetuity and re-establish Israeli settlements there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But among Israelis, there is less suspicion about Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s approach to Iran. Though some foreigners accuse him of stoking a war with Iran for his own personal benefit, in Israel he is often seen as cautiously threading the needle between keeping Iran at bay while avoiding an outright war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Israel, \u201cPeople look at him and they say, \u2018OK, we trust him because he doesn\u2019t take big risks,\u2019\u201d Ms. Mualem said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In more than three decades in politics, Mr. Netanyahu has built a reputation as someone who has always been able to restore his electoral advantage even after falling behind in the polls.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While leader of the opposition in 1996, he fell 20 points behind after the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, whose approach to reaching peace with the Palestinians he had criticized. But Mr. Netanyahu still clawed his way back, defeating Mr. Rabin\u2019s successor in a general election in 1996.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, some long-term analysts of Mr. Netanyahu say it is still too early to say whether his mild revival portends success at the next election. Tensions with Iran could ease for the time being and other domestic crises could worsen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Secular members of his coalition <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/30\/world\/middleeast\/israel-gaza-haredi-military-conscription.html\" title=\"\">may demand<\/a> that he support legislation that forces ultra-Orthodox Jews, who currently have an exemption from military conscription, to serve in the army. That might prompt his ultra-Orthodox partners to quit the alliance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019m still not seeing this as a good week for Bibi,\u201d said Anshel Pfeffer, a biographer of Mr. Netanyahu. \u201cIt\u2019s just that the pendulum swings a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But there are several reasons the pendulum may not swing back so quickly, allowing Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s revival to continue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">First, the anger over the security failures that led to the October attack has begun to be directed not only at Mr. Netanyahu but toward other political and military leaders as well, analysts said. That could help him retain some support.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Also, while protests against his government have swelled in recent weeks as the war has ground on, they are still smaller than they were at their peak last spring, when anger at Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s proposed judicial overhaul led to fears for Israeli democracy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The protest movement also lacks a unifying rallying cry, slowing its momentum. Some specifically want Mr. Netanyahu to take responsibility for his government\u2019s failure to prevent the October attack, and to resign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Another faction is focused on freeing Israeli hostages held in Gaza and want Mr. Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire deal with Hamas that would secure their release. Parts of the hostage movement are reluctant to attack Mr. Netanyahu too personally lest it undermine that primary goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A third group of government critics are mostly motivated by a desire to remove the ultra-Orthodox exemption from military service.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of overlap between these three but there\u2019s not one cause that is motivating and animating people,\u201d said Mr. Pfeffer, the prime minister\u2019s biographer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Netanyahu may also have been boosted by the decision by Mr. Gantz, his primary rival, not to articulate a clear alternative to Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s wartime strategy, or a long-term vision for a postwar Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Polling shows that Mr. Gantz\u2019s alliance would still win an election if it was held tomorrow. But in a gesture of unity, Mr. Gantz joined Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s government at the start of the war. His critics say that, in his efforts to maintain wartime solidarity, he has failed to provide a clear manifesto around which Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s opponents might rally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIsraelis want the war to end, and they want the war to end in victory,\u201d Mr. Pfeffer said. \u201cGantz hasn\u2019t really managed to articulate any idea of how that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some analysts think the Gaza war has the potential to create the same kind of political and social ruptures in Israel that the Yom Kippur war did.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 1973, military reservists returning from the Yom Kippur war, angry at their leaders\u2019 failure to prevent its outbreak, ultimately helped drive political opposition to the government of the day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But that took time. Prime Minister Golda Meir, whose government was criticized for failing to prevent the war, resigned but her party still won the next election and lost power only in 1977.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Yom Kippur war also ended within weeks, whereas the Gaza war has lasted months and could still continue for months more. And while it does, voters may be wary of protesting in large numbers against Mr. Netanyahu, and risk puncturing the war effort, said Ms. Mualem, the biographer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are still displaced from their homes near Gaza and by the fighting with Hezbollah along the Lebanon border. Others are on active reserve duty in the military, some of them even fighting in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe public understands that we are in a big war and this is not the time for a new election,\u201d Ms. Mualem said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/20\/world\/middleeast\/israel-netanyahu-gaza-iran.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel last October, the deadliest in Israeli history, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s political future has seemed bleak, with critics blaming him for the security failure and his poll ratings plummeting. But a confrontation between Israel and Iran this week \u2014 including on Friday when Israel retaliated against last weekend\u2019s missile [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/20\/world\/20israel-netanyahu01\/20israel-netanyahu01-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[35277,2622,148,19606,4758],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31336"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31338,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31336\/revisions\/31338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}