At the top of Benjamin Netanyahu's agenda: self-preservation
CBC
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began addressing a solemn ceremony in Jerusalem earlier this week commemorating the country's dead from wars and other hostilities, Nir Galon rose to his feet and proceeded with a silent, one-man protest.
Standing near the rear of the open-air auditorium, the 43-year-old Jerusalem IT entrepreneur unfurled a large Israeli flag with the date Oct. 7 etched in red and held it aloft until Netanyahu finished speaking.
As the prime minister, without looking up, returned to his seat in the front row, another man in the audience yelled "Garbage!"
"He doesn't have the moral right to be here," Galon told CBC News after the ceremony.
Like many Israelis, Galon blames Netanyahu for not preventing the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, which left more than 1,200 dead and resulted in the capture of more than 250 hostages. Israel responded with a ferocious military campaign in Gaza that has killed upwards of 35,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Egyptian and Qatari mediators, prodded by CIA director William Burns, have tried for weeks to cajole both Hamas and Israel into accepting a truce along with a prisoner and hostage swap. The Palestinian militant group has held firm on a permanent ceasefire with an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, something Netanyahu has said is totally out of the question.
Those talks appear to be in stasis, and Galon questions Netanyahu's motivation.
"I don't know what is his interest — is he making a decision because it's in his political interest or because he actually cares about people?"
Top among Netanyahu's personal interests is avoiding a criminal trial on a series of charges including breach of trust and accepting bribes, which could proceed full steam ahead were he to lose the prime minister's job.
Netanyahu not only boasts Israel's most successful electoral record — having won six general elections — but his mastery of the dark arts of political survival has so far enabled him to successfully navigate the fallout from the Oct. 7 attack and deflect blame.
WATCH | Pressure mounts on Netanyahu as war drags on:
His partners in Israel's coalition government include far-right parties led by cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who left-leaning Israeli publications have called "Jewish supremacists."
Both men have called for Israel to sacrifice the remaining Israeli hostages and pursue the war against Hamas until the bitter end, with the ultimate goal of driving Palestinians out of Gaza and repopulating the territory with Jewish settlers.
Such calls for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza have infuriated Israel's allies, including the United States, and led to despair for the families of Israel's hostages. But Netanyahu has resisted every plea to distance himself from his far-right benefactors.
