Netanyahu between two fires

Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed a crackdown on judicial reforms that have sparked unrest in Israel, but he remains caught between, on the one hand, far-right allies whose support he needs to remain prime minister and a huge wave of opposition to those plans on the other.

On Monday, he bowed to mass protests, strikes and appeals from political leaders and foreign allies to delay implementation of a key policy of his nationalist-right coalition: a law that strengthens government control over the judiciary.

However, Reuters points out that there is no indication that either side is ready to step down before the next parliamentary session next month, or that the 73-year-old Likud party leader can find a compromise that will keep him in power without further fracturing Israeli society.

"Netnjahu is stuck," his unofficial biographer, Ansel Feffer, told Reuters. "He is faced with a degree of resistance and protest that he never imagined".

It shows the dilemma facing Israel's longest-serving prime minister, who managed to return to the political scene last year by pushing aside the current corruption scandal and the political obituaries written on him after his last coalition collapsed in 2020.

Netanyahu, while announcing in a televised address that he would postpone the law on justice, quoted the sage Solomon saying that he would extend his hand for the purpose of dialogue. "I don't want to tear the country in two... we are not facing enemies but our brothers," he said.

Yet, in addition to pushing through a law that polls have shown is extremely unpopular, he then characterized his opponents as an extremist minority "inciting civil war."

Netanyahu must choose between trying to buy more time to force implacable coalition partners to back down, crushing the opposition with a parliamentary majority, or persuading one of its wary leaders to replace his partners in the new government

Such a fierce tone not only indicates how high the stakes are for the prime minister who hopes to extend his 15-year rule that has spanned six coalitions since the 1990s. It also points to the problems facing Israel amid a new security crisis in the West Bank and a coalition that has caused alarm among old allies after coming to power in its fifth election in less than four years, according to Reuters.

Since polls show that his coalition would lose any new elections, Netanyahu cannot count on much support from old allies who remain embittered.

"We have bad experiences from the past, so we will first make sure that there are no tricks or bluffing," said opposition leader Yair Lapid, a former coalition partner of Netanyahu, commenting on his decision to delay the law.

A former member of an elite special forces unit whose older brother Joni was killed while leading a mission to rescue kidnapped passengers in Entebbe in 1976, Netanyahu does not express much interest in the decades-old vision of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Negotiations between Israel and Palestine, which are mediated by the United States, were suspended in 2014 while he was in power and so far there is no prospect that they will be resumed.

A security hawk, Netanyahu is banking on the basic instincts of his voter base in dusty towns and neighborhoods far from the lights of modern Tel Aviv.

However, his choice is narrowed. He must choose between trying to buy more time to force implacable coalition partners to back down, crushing the opposition with a parliamentary majority or persuading one of its wary leaders to replace his partners in the new government, Feffer told the British agency.

Further complicating the situation is that he himself is fighting corruption charges alleging that he illegally accepted gifts and provided regulatory favors in exchange for favorable media coverage.

Netanyahu has described the cases as politically motivated, rejecting the charges and saying they are unrelated to his judicial reform.

Unlike previous coalitions, he cannot now maneuver between factions on the left and the right.

Instead, the man who for more than two decades was seen as a destroyer of liberal opinion is now on the left wing in his own government.

His coalition partners include, among other things, extreme right-wing supporters of Jewish settlers, who have shocked Israel's foreign allies with harsh statements about the Palestinians.

To win their support, Netanyahu has given them key government positions in charge of finance and internal affairs, and has promised to establish a national guard unit that critics fear will become a right-wing militia.

However, as the road ahead becomes more and more difficult, it seems as if there isn't much more he can promise them at this point.