Israeli officials blamed the rockets launched from Lebanon on Friday on Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules the Gaza Strip and routinely fires at Israel, rather than on any group based in Lebanon, whose barely functioning government is in the throes of its own deep political crisis. “If they can externalize an enemy, that will help them.” “The timing is very good for Netanyahu and his government because it buys them some time,” said Merissa Khurma, who runs the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center. Critics argue that Netanyahu, who has parlayed his reputation as a hawkish defender of Israeli security into decades of political success, is deliberately stoking conflicts now to distract from the domestic morass. 11, in what’s become known as the “rally ‘round the flag” effect. Yet historically, military conflicts and external security threats have a tendency to temper criticism of the government in power, as the U.S. After three tumultuous months of governing, a new poll by Israel’s Channel 13 News suggests support for Netanyahu’s Likud party is plunging, with the party poised to fall well below a majority in parliament if a new election were to be held now. Netanyahu’s government, the most far-right in Israeli history, has a majority so slim that just a few defections threaten to sink it, a reality that gives outsize influence to the most extreme members of his coalition. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial overhaul was the source of weeks of huge, sometimes violent rallies. pleading with him to show restraint in the West Bank, where most nations view Jewish settlements to be illegal. Their increasing demands have squeezed Netanyahu between his own far-right allies and leaders in the U.S. Meanwhile, outbreaks of Palestinian violence against Jewish settlers in the West Bank have emboldened ultranationalist ministers within Israel’s government to demand a more aggressive Israeli response and expansionist policy on settlements. With the exception of West Bank clashes, all of the recent incidents were in retaliation for rockets launched into Israel, which in turn were retaliation for Israeli raids at a site in Jerusalem holy to Jews and Muslims during the Passover and Ramadan holidays. The only neighboring countries whose borders with Israel have remained peaceful of late are Egypt and Jordan - the first two Arab nations to make peace with Israel decades ago. In less than a week, Israel has exchanged fire with Palestinians and Palestinian-linked groups in the occupied West Bank, the coastal Gaza Strip to the west, and both Lebanon and Syria to the north. “I decided to leave the disagreements behind us,” Netanyahu said in reversing his decision to fire Gallant, citing the need to “stand together around the clock on all fronts in the face of the security challenges.” While that appears unlikely, those sentiments speak to a moment of intense distraction for Israel’s security apparatus.Ĭase in point: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant - recently fired by Netanyahu and then un-fired on Monday - has warned that the judicial overhaul is so divisive and harmful to military morale that it is threatening Israel’s national security. Israel’s fiercest enemies, like Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, are gleefully predicting the nation will soon implode under the weight of its own internal divisions. “Without doing so, our enemies will keep on trying to exploit this situation.” He said the only way to secure Israel’s deterrence against radical forces is “to find a way to calm the current instability in Israel,” including in its politics. “It’s a present that we’re giving them,” former Israeli defense intelligence official Dennis Citrinowicz told NBC News in an interview, referring to Israel’s adversaries, such as Hamas, Iran and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Protesters against the government's judicial reform bill, in Tel Aviv on Saturday. After weeks of rising tensions, Israel’s dueling crises - one over national security, the other over domestic politics - are increasingly bleeding into each other, fueling a perfect storm that analysts say has left Israel vulnerable on more fronts simultaneously than at any other point in recent memory.
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