Wartime leaders typically enjoy a boost of public support and a reprieve from other political or personal challenges. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has enjoyed 90% approval even a year after his country was invaded by Russia. Though the George W. Bush administration ignored intelligence warnings of an al-Qaeda attack before Sept. 11, Bush’s approval skyrocketed to over 85% in the months after.
By contrast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has seen no such bump in public support since Hamas’ horrific attack on Oct. 7. Netanyahu’s government was already in crisis well before the attacks, barely holding onto power in the Knesset. Subsequent events and revelations about the government’s security failings have given him no reprieve. With a new Israeli Defense Force ground offensive into southern Gaza starting right as his long-running trial on corruption charges resumes, Netanyahu’s poor public standing makes his next steps on all fronts even more unpredictable.
The closest comparison to Netanyahu’s situation is one he won’t like: the “Rose Garden strategy” of President Jimmy Carter.
In a country where the majority of voters rank national security as their No. 1 issue, not least because the national mandate for military service impacts every family, the largest attack on a Jewish community since the Holocaust had Netanyahu and his government being blamed by the majority of Israelis. According to the Jerusalem Post, the nation’s more conservative leaning paper, 4 in 5 Israelis wanted Netanyahu to resign and nearly 80% of his own coalition members blamed him for the security failures leading to the attack.
The hostages who have returned, and their families, have publicly quarreled with Netanyahu, demanding in meetings with his government that he focus on “bringing them home now, not in another month.” This is in addition to revelations that the government and military ignored intelligence that Hamas was preparing a devastating…
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