Hospital Visit: Israeli Anger At Netanyahu Erupts

One Israeli cabinet Minister was barred from a hospital visitors’ entrance.

Another’s bodyguards were drenched with coffee thrown by a bereaved man. A third had “traitor” and “imbecile” shouted at her as she came to comfort families evacuated during the attack.

Following the October 7 attack, there is little love shown for the Government that is being widely accused of dropping the Country’s guard and engulfing it in a Gaza war that is rattling the region.

Whatever ensues, a day of judgment looms for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after a record-long career of political comebacks.

“October 2023 Debacle” read a headline in top-selling daily Yedioth Ahronoth, language meant to recall Israel’s failure to anticipate a twin Egyptian and Syrian offensive in October 1973, which eventually led then-Prime Minister Golda Meir to resign.

“It doesn’t matter if there’s a commission of inquiry or not, or whether or not he admits fault. All that matters is what ‘middle Israelis’ think – which is that this is a fiasco and that the Prime Minister is responsible,” Asa-El told Reuters.

“He will go, and his entire establishment along with him.”

An opinion poll in Maariv newspaper found that 21% of Israelis want Netanyahu to remain Prime Minister after the war. Sixty-six percent said “someone else” and 13% were undecided. CD

“We forgot to be brothers, and got a war,” Amit Segal, political analyst for the top-rated Channel 12 TV, said on Telegram.

“It’s not too late to repair. Stop quarrelling now.”

Noting the scorn heaped on some cabinet ministers, Asa-El said fissures seemed already to be appearing within the government coalition.

“You hear people in the street who are natural Likud supporters speaking about them with unequivocal hostility,” he said.

“The wrath is only going to grow, and this apparent effort by Netanyahu to evade his own responsibility only makes people angrier. He just can’t bring himself to say: ‘We screwed up.'”

REUTERS