Ex-Israel Prime Minister Calls For Early Polls To Oust Netanyahu

The Gaza War has revealed the staggering strategic incompetence of the Israeli government and an astonishing leadership vacuum at the top.

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak stated that Netanyahu's policies are no way to govern during the most dangerous period in the country’s history since the War of Independence in 1948. I Photo: Adi Cohen Zedek (עדי כהן צדק) Wikimedia Commons

Members of the ruling coalition have dragged their feet on critical decisions, failed to cooperate with each other in navigating the war, attacked the IDF’s senior ranks, and appeared embarrassingly indifferent and unfocused when it comes to managing relations with Israel’s most important ally, the US, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak wrote for Foreign Affairs.

This is no way to govern during the most dangerous period in the country’s history since the War of Independence in 1948. What Israel needs is the sober, determined, and farsighted decision-making of David Ben-Gurion.

What it has, instead, is the narcissistic, manipulative, shortsighted approach of Benjamin Netanyahu. The leadership crisis has reached an acute stage.

The Biden administration has presented Netanyahu with a proposal for a new postwar regional order that would end Hamas’s ability to threaten Israel and rule Gaza, place control of the territory in the hands of a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority (with the assistance of Arab governments), normalize Israeli-Saudi relations, and establish a formal US-Saudi defense alliance.

All this would be conditioned on Israel agreeing to a political process with the long-term goal of a two-state solution, with the backing of Arab governments friendly with the US and opposed to Iran and its partners and proxies.

The vision is of a process that would eventually produce a strong and secure Israel living side by side, behind agreed and secure borders, with a viable, demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

Netanyahu could accept the deal or he can capitulate to his racist, messianic far-right partners in his governing coalition, who seek to annex the Palestinian territories and thus reject any proposal, however conditional and long-term, that involves the creation of a Palestinian state.

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