Last night, from my apartment in Tel Aviv, which overlooks Hostages Square – a rallying point for relatives of the Israeli captives – I watched the protesters against Benjamin Netanyahu, whose calls for an immediate ceasefire have become a permanent fixture.
When news broke of his plan to take over Gaza City and further extend the war, the commotion increased. My dog Pippa – who is half corgi, half Jack Russell – insisted we go down.
It wasn’t quite the mass demonstration one would expect, more an expression of the depleted energy levels of a fatigued Israeli public. But there was a palpable combination of anger and resolve – and it felt like it could be the beginning of something.
Could Netanyahu’s reckless decision to “demilitarise” and occupy the Gaza Strip, involving a fresh round of ferocious fighting, prove to be the trigger for a fierce and sustained backlash? Could this be what eventually forces him out of office?
If so, it will have been a long time coming. First, there was the debilitating trauma of the October 7 Hamas terror attack in 2023 – undoubtedly the worst calamity and darkest day in Israel’s history. Then came the profound humiliation and dejection of learning with horror about the more than 200 hostages held in Gaza tunnels.
Shortly after came Netanyahu’s intransigent and depraved refusal to take responsibility and be held accountable for what had happened under his watch and, to a large extent, as a result of his policies.
Then there was his rancorous dismissal of the IDF chief of the general staff, his acrimonious firing of the head of the Shin Bet Security Agency, the repeated protraction of the war with different pretexts, the war’s expansion into Lebanon, Syria and Iran, and his current attempt to force out the attorney general.
It has all helped create an aura of an ongoing national crisis. And still, none of that drove a million people onto the streets.
But now comes the confluence of a decision to extend the war indefinitely by occupying Gaza with a cynical, politically and morally corrupt decision to codify the exemption of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service.
The question is, where is the Israeli public now? When will all these trajectories converge to form a critical public mass that says: Enough is enough, this will not pass, not in our name?
If you ask the demonstrators in Tel Aviv last night, where I was, the answer is “now”. But if you looked around, there were thousands, not hundreds of thousands – and that is not nearly enough.
Any March of Folly-type decision to take full military control of Gaza City will not be accepted or tolerated by the public, especially if it involves the inevitable sacrificing of the hostages and suffering casualties in a war that seems less and less sensible. Families of those being held are opposed, and army reservists are failing to sign up in disgust.
Netanyahu’s latest move has vindicated those – a majority of Israelis, according to polls – who believe the war had no clear and coherent political objectives, that his military means were never aligned with strategic goals, that the war was protracted artificially and needlessly for political survival, and that what the public believed to be a just war was upended and Israel turned into an ostracised villain in the eyes of the world.
It is important to understand the Israeli psyche in order to understand the absence of a broader public outcry. A majority of Israelis may detest Netanyahu – but the inclination, incentive, impetus and energy to protest during a war was always relatively low. It is “un-Israeli” to do so.
There have been several stages in the evolution of the public mood regarding the war. Initial shock turned into fury and anger toward Netanyahu. But this never matured into mass demonstrations because Israelis are patriots, the military is a people’s military and when there’s a war, you don’t protest. That’s the default political-cultural reaction. The one constant feature was the willingness and persistence in protesting for the release of hostages held by Hamas, a movement that grew with Netanyahu’s callous disregard for their fate.
October 7 2023 was a day of infamy – on such a scale that the public at large was devastated into paralysis. The hostility, animosity and disdain for Netanyahu reached record numbers in the immediate aftermath of the indelible catastrophe.
It is important to remember that October 2023 followed a year of mass demonstrations against Netanyahu’s illiberal constitutional coup and his open war against the judiciary and “deep state elites”.
First, there was a natural desire for retribution and revenge, manifested in a massive retaliation. Consistent polls throughout 2024 and into the first half of 2025 showed that 70 per cent thought Netanyahu is responsible for the debacle, 70 per cent thought he should resign, 65 per cent wanted an early election.
As Netanyahu, commensurate with his constitutional coup, refused to be held accountable, tried to dump the entire responsibility on the military which “failed me”, the intelligence organisations that were surprised, deep state elites that “weakened Israeli society” (his words) and was increasingly perceived as prosecuting and protracting the war for political expediency, the public grew restive, furious and frustrated.
Now, the conditions seem ripe for a public uproar. This will be fueled by the knowledge that the IDF is adamantly opposed to this pseudo-plan to occupy Gaza.
The next few days will be critical. If the IDF chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, continues to divulge his reservations, the public may wake up. On the other hand, never discount the power of fatigue and resignation.
Alon Pinkas is a former Israeli consul general to the US and was a political adviser to two former prime ministers, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak
