The rope loosen around Benjamin Netanyahu. By triggering an open war with Iran on June 13, the Israeli prime minister, entangled in judicial and political setbacks and criticized both for their population and by the international community on their actions in Gaza, undone of the accusation.
This conflict with the objective of preventing I will have nuclear weapons, “an ancient Israeli doctrine”, “is the subject of a broad consensus,” explains Frédérique Schillo, historian, specialist in Israel and international relations.
“It is very useful for Netanyahu because he silenced criticism within the country, but also outside,” sociologist Nitzan Perelman abounds.
“Netanyahu had become very unpopular”
Inside, Likoud president was the goal of multiple criticism. Your government – One of the correct in the history of Israel was close to the solution the day before the launch of this unprecedented Iran attack. At the origin of tensions within its coalition? The recruitment of ultra -orthodox Jews, which benefit from a historical military exemption, while Israeli society has been mobilized since October 7.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is a political animal, managed to negotiate behind the scene to avoid falling,” says David Rigoulet -rez, associate researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) and specialist in the Middle East, contacted by BFMTV.com.
The prime minister is also blamed for his attacks against the Israeli judicial system. By appointing a new head of internal intelligence services, to succeed Ronen Bar to whom he attributed the failure of October 7, he faced the Attorney General of the country and the Supreme Court. His image is also tarnished by the trial for corruption, fraud and breach of the confidence for which he appears several times a week in Tel Aviv. Not to mention “Qatargate”, a scandal that awaits you: it is suspected that two of its nearby advisors have carried out influence operations for the benefit of the Gulf Emirate considered hostile by the Israelis.
In recent months, protests against their war management in Gaza have multiplied in the country. The Israeli population deplore that has not been able to free the 53 hostages that still have Hamas. And an increasingly important part is moved by the more than 55,000 Palestinians killed in the enclave under Israeli bombs. More than two thirds of the Israelis want the end of the war and an agreement with Hamas for the liberation of all hostages.
“Netanyahu was in a very bad posture. He had become very unpopular on many essential issues,” said specialist Frédérique Schillo, co -author of Under your stones, Jerusalem.
The incessant bombardment over Gaza two and a half years after the beginning of the conflict and the humanitarian blockade responsible for the catastrophic humanitarian conditions also beat Benjamin Netanyahu a growing isolation in the international scene.
The tone has increased between the Prime Minister, led by an international arrest warrant of the CPI for “war crimes”, and the Westerners, who have been increasingly critical of their public opinion. The threats of sanctions of France, the United Kingdom, Canada or the Netherlands have triggered in the Hebrew state. At the end of May, the British announced, among other things, the suspension of the negotiations of a free trade agreement with the State of Israel and expressed unprecedented sanctions to two Israeli ministers of the extreme right on June 11.
The Israeli population largely favorable to the attack in Iran
Today, “Netanyhahu has returned to popularity, in confidence in the Israeli population,” says historian Frédérique Schillo. According to a survey published last Saturday by channel 14, the assertive support of the Prime Minister, 54% of Israelis say they trust him. Because despite the fear of missiles that have been in their country for seven days, they have rejoice in the attack against Iran they consider necessary.
“Netanyahu goes in the direction of a deep expectation of Israeli public opinion,” Jigoulet -rez Iris researcher judges. “Iran is perceived by
All Israelis as an existential threat. “
For decades, the Hebrew State has been annihilating Iran’s nuclear abilities. Benjamin Netanyahu hit him particularly from the attacks of October 7, 2023. According to a survey conducted by the Israeli Institute of Democracy (Institute of Democracy of Israel), an Independent Research Institute, 70% of the Israeli support the decision to attack Iran.
“There is a great consensus beyond political splits,” said Frédérique Schillo. While recalling that Netanyahu’s political rival, the opposition leader Yaïr Lapid, said that “the decision to attack Iran now was the right one.” “Yes, this government must be revoked, but not in the midst of an existential struggle,” said the American agency Associated Press.
“Some opposition members, like Yair Lapid or Benny Gantz, had even criticized him for being too waiting and seeing,” added the specialist in the Middle East.
Similarly, the European voices that criticized him a few days before the attack in Iran, such as French president Emmanuel Macron, since then they have given him a new support. Like Israel, the United States and Europeans suspect that Iran wants to acquire atomic weapons and fear for their safety. French diplomacy Jean-Noël Barrot said on Sunday, June 15 that the Iranian nuclear program was a “threat to Israel and Europe.”
“It is more comfortable for Benjamin Netanyahu but less for Westerners. Emmanuel Macron, for example, is upset. On the one hand, it reiterates Israel’s right to defend himself and, on the other, remember that the atrocities in Gaza. A dissonance that European opinion does not understand well,” says Fréndédrique Schillo that stresses the “difficulty of the difficulty. ‘
“Even a successful operation in Iran will not forget its failure” of October 7
If it is “false” and “simplistic”, according to the experts interviewed, to say that Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the attack in Iran to forget their political setbacks, they agree that it is likely that “capitalize”, to “take advantage of the strategic opportunity.”
The attack calendar is linked to international configuration, it is compatible with Frédérique Schillo. Iran weakens in the regional scene: its proxys, allied armed groups, such as Hamas, Lebanese Hezbolá, Houtis rebels in Yemen or Shiite militias in Syria or Iraq, are weakened or “reduce to nothing.”
The Israeli Prime Minister “wants to present himself as Mr. Iran, Mr. Security, wants to complete a plan committed in response to the massacres of October 7 to undo to Israel of any threat,” said the specialist in international relations. And this, “attacking the octopus, to Iran.”
Court responsible for strategic failures that led to the unprecedented attack in Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu expects to catch up in the eyes of Israeli public opinion. “It is a story of history, it has a great interest in posterity and what it will leave in history books,” says Frédérique Schillo.
But that will not be enough. “It seeks to repair the terrible mistakes made but cannot cancel them,” said researcher David Rigoulet -rez. A large majority of the Israeli population still insists that an investigation commission on the attacks on October 7, for the moment, categorically rejected the prime minister.
“Even a successful operation in Iran will not forget his failure,” abounds the historian.
In any case, he will face his judicial and political responsibilities. It is very unlikely that its right coalition, of the extreme right and ultra religious will be renewed in the next elections in 2026 “. A survey of channel 13, the second private channel in the country, published on Wednesday shows that it has not won a political point within the population,” illustrates Frédérique Schillo. “He will not escape his destiny.”
Source: BFM TV
