Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a man with a significant amount of pressure on his shoulders. The 3 \u00bd-month-long war against Hamas in Gaza has long since turned into an albatross around his neck, one that has caused his approval ratings to drop precipitously and created adversity wherever he looks.<\/p>\n
The way the Israeli military has chosen to prosecute the military campaign against Hamas is by far the biggest source of angst for the international community. The Gaza Strip, a coastal territory the United Nations predicted<\/a> would be \u201cunlivable\u201d years before the Israel-Hamas war erupted, is now essentially a wasteland. More than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed, tens of thousands have been wounded and entire cities, such as Gaza City, the territory\u2019s largest metropolitan area, have been leveled. More than 85% of Palestinians in Gaza are internally displaced, and acute food insecurity<\/a> is the norm.<\/p>\n All of this is causing anger not only in the Arab world but also in the so-called Global South; South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for genocide. President Joe Biden is also facing pushback from his fellow Democrats<\/a> who believe the White House isn\u2019t being as forceful with Netanyahu as it should be.<\/p>\n Netanyahu is also the target of intense anger inside Israel itself. Leading the charge are the families of the hostages who remain in Hamas custody. More than 130 of them, civilians and soldiers alike, are in Gaza today, some of them parked in Hamas\u2019 extensive tunnel network. This makes it immensely difficult for the Israeli military to mount successful rescue operations \u2014 to date, only one hostage has been rescued. The families in Israel are concerned that the longer the war drags on, the more likely their loved ones will die. It\u2019s not an unreasonable fear \u2014 some have reportedly been killed in Israeli airstrikes, while three more were accidentally killed by Israeli troops. Fair or not, many in Israel believe Netanyahu isn\u2019t doing all he can to free the remaining hostages. Others suspect the hostages are a second-tier priority for his government, below winning the war.<\/p>\n The fissures within Netanyahu\u2019s coalition government are more obvious as well. After Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 attacks, Netanyahu reached out to his political rivals, including former generals Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, to join his war cabinet. The decision was packaged as a way to bring the nation together during one of its darkest moments. For Netanyahu, it was also a clever way to distribute some of the blame if Israel\u2019s war strategy in Gaza proved to be unworkable.<\/p>\n Yet there isn\u2019t much \u201cunity\u201d in the unity cabinet anymore. Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff, is increasingly vocal about his opposition to Netanyahu\u2019s current strategy in Gaza and said in a television interview that claims of clear, rapid progress were utter lies. \u201cThose who talk about an absolute defeat and lack of will and ability do not tell the truth,\u201d Eisenkot said<\/a>. He even suggested the Israelis should choose new leaders. \u201cWe need to go to the polls and have an election in the next few months, in order to renew the trust as currently there is no trust.\u201d The message isn\u2019t subtle: Your current leadership is deceiving you about how the war is going.<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s political allies have largely chosen to ignore Eisenkot\u2019s public comments. But the former general isn\u2019t wrong to state that Israel\u2019s war strategy is causing more trouble than it\u2019s worth. While thousands of Hamas militants have been killed over the last three and a half months \u2014 the U.S. estimates that 20% to 30%<\/a> of the group\u2019s membership has been taken off the battlefield \u2014 Hamas has a deep bench, is well ensconced in the Palestinian social fabric and remains as committed to defending its turf as it was on the first day of the war. Outside of Saleh Arouri, the Hamas deputy political chief who was assassinated in Lebanon, Hamas\u2019 top military leadership in Gaza \u2014 Yehya Sinwar being the most infamous \u2014 is still alive and kicking. There are even reports that Hamas officials have reemerged in Gaza City, weeks after the Israeli military claimed operational control over the area.<\/p>\n All of this has less to do with Netanyahu, per se, and more to do with the objectives the prime minister embraced early on. Those objectives include freeing every hostage Hamas kidnapped on Oct. 7 and destroying Hamas as an organization. Two fairly straightforward goals, and justifiable ones at that.<\/p>\n