Mohammed Abu Oun

Protests and events demanding PM Benjamin Netanyahu continue for the seventeenth week in a row. The range of protests notably increased covering more areas in the occupied lands. The intensity and tools of the protestors to have their demands met have also increased. The occupied Palestinian cities and streets of the occupation’s entity have been witnessing a state of tension after the violence and vandalism activities had spread. The strangest and most bizarre incident was the settlers stepping on the Israeli flag on more than one occasion. This pushed the occupation’s police to oppress the demonstrations and arrest some of the demonstrators.

The protestors demand putting an end to Netanyahu’s era as prime minister, since he has been one for more than 10 consecutive years. He has been accused of corruption, bribery, failure to manage the Coronavirus crisis, running the entity in-line with his personal interests, and using the closure decisions to serve his ends not the public health interests.

A poll on Friday showed that the majority of the Israeli community support the idea of Netanyahu’s resignation and exit from the political arena. Netanyahu’s powerful speeches, political accomplishments in normalization with the Gulf, and the assaults of his followers on the protestors have so far failed to divert them away from their demands and end the protests.

Netanyahu and the Likud accuse the protests of being paid and organized by his rivals; whether the religious rightists who disapprove Netanyahu for not committing to the annexation date or the leftists and centrists who see Netanyahu as the new dictator of ‘Israel’ and who disagree with him on the policies and method of managing the entity. The Likud’s attack changed into a more tense tone considering the rivals and opponents as traitors and both accusing and threatening them. The most recent threat was by Miki Zohar, member in Likud, against Avichai Mandelblit, the Attorney General.

The state of tension in the streets of the occupation was accompanied by severe stiffness in the relationship between Netanyahu and the components of the entity’s political arena. Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White, threatened to withdraw from Netanyahu’s government should the latter continue to take action alone and stall assigning a police inspector and delay the budget act. Gantz threatened to cooperate with Netanyahu’s rivals, including the rightists, in order to topple the government should the budget remain unapproved until December. He also said that if Netanyahu did not act like humans, he would be held responsible.

The rightist opponents, led by Naftali Bennett, along with the leftists, led by Yair Lapid, support the demonstrations and stress the demand to overthrow Netanyahu. Last week, they proposed withholding confidence in the government. They received support from the rightists, leftists, Arab parties, and Yisrael Beiteinu, led by Avigdor Lieberman, but the proposition was not voted on by the majority. Therefore, the Likud attacked the opponents and both accused them and called them traitors.

Naftali Bennett, Yemina party leader, was the one mostly attacked and criticized. The Likud actually fears his rise over the top of the Right Bloc hierarchy as Netanyahu’s reputation drops. The polls show Bennet’s popularity and possible luck in the coming elections, and the smaller gap in the seats as the Likud is ahead with 3 seats only. In addition, Bennett accuses Netanyahu of ‘adding nails to the coffin and disrupting the political Israeli structure’.

The drop in Netanyahu’s popularity and loss of support of his partners could result in his fall-down and ending his era that has become a political burden on the Israeli politics and structure. This, however, could happen much sooner especially amidst the expectations of US President Trump’s failure in the elections since he is Netanyahu’s big, strategic supporter. Chances are in favor of his democratic rival Joe Biden, whose winning will take the US policy back to its balanced support to the occupation while keeping the regional interests and political methods in check.

Netanyahu, who has filled the position of a prime minister for the longest period, is suffering not only from a drop in his political status but a complete collapse. Is Netanyahu’s rule lasting for a matter of days? Will the leader, or as they call him ‘the king’, fall after 14 years of ruling? I think the end is close.