This former insider knows why Netanyahu won’t agree to a ceasefire

Benjamin Netanyahu’s fear of losing his grip on power helps explain why the Israeli prime minister has failed to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas, according to one of Israel’s most prominent global defenders during the war in Gaza.

Eylon Levy, who shot to prominence as an official Israeli government spokesman early in the war, urged the Albanese government to put more pressure on Hamas’s key international backers to force the listed terrorist group to set the hostages free, accusing Australia of losing the initial “moral clarity” it showed after Hamas’ shock October 7 attacks.

Former Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy proved too combative for the Netanyahu government.Credit: Kate Geraghty

The polarising spokesman, who eventually proved too combative for the Netanyahu government, said he was “very critical” of the Israeli government’s communications strategy during the war, accusing it of giving up on trying to convey its message to the world.

A nationwide strike led by Israel’s largest union to pressure Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal began on Monday, as hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets after news that Hamas had killed six hostages in Gaza.

Levy said during a visit to Australia that the execution of the hostages had “struck a terrible nerve with Israeli society because people are at their wits’ end and they want to get the hostages out”.

“And so there’s immense anger that they were abducted alive on October 7, that Hamas executed them, and that we were too late [to bring them home alive],” he said in an interview.

The strike is expected to paralyse large parts of the Israeli economy, closing the Tel Aviv international airport, schools, government offices and many businesses.

Levy said: “Netanyahu is under immense pressure from coalition partners on his right who think it’s more important to destroy Hamas than bring back the hostages, and he fears that if he accepted a deal that would end the war and leave Hamas on its feet ... it would bring down his government.

“There is definitely that dynamic, but there are also legitimate security interests that the prime minister has to look out for.”

Netanyahu’s coalition government depends on the support of far-right parties led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who have opposed any ceasefire deal with Hamas.

Levy said Israel faced “impossible dilemmas right now”, with the nation torn between the desire to secure the release of the remaining hostages and dismantling Hamas as a major security threat.

He said the main divide within the Israeli government was whether to insist upon maintaining control of the border between Israel and Gaza as a condition of any hostage deal, or to return to the issue later.

“I think we’ve found ourselves having this bizarre conversation about to what extent Israel should be blackmailed and capitulate to Hamas in order to get hostages back,” he said.

Levy said Australia should tell Qatar – which provides a safe haven for key Hamas leaders – that it would not treat it as a “normal country” until it expelled Hamas’ leaders and forced the militant group to release the remaining hostages.

“When Hamas started this war, Australia wanted Israel to win,” he said.

“… unfortunately, under immense public pressure, they’ve changed their position and are now calling for a ceasefire that would leave Hamas in place when they knew in that moment of moral clarity after October 7 that if Israel doesn’t win this war, there will be a next time and that it will be worse.”

Australia and other longstanding supporters of Israel have grown increasingly critical as the war has progressed, alarmed by the failure to reach a ceasefire, and the mounting death toll in Gaza during Israel’s invasion, which stands at over 40,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The British-born spokesman protested against Netanyahu’s judicial reforms before the war, putting him offside with Netanyhu’s wife Sara, but emerged as a hawkish defender of the government at the beginning of the conflict.

Images of Levy went viral when he raised his eyebrows in shock at a question from a UK Sky News reporter and he attracted condemnation for describing pro-Palestine protesters in London as “rape apologists”.

Israel’s hardline supporters closely followed Levy’s fiery interviews with Western media outlets such as the BBC, but his criticism of Britain’s then-top diplomat, David Cameron, on social media led to his removal in March.

“If it were up to me, I would have stayed in the role,” Levy said. “I think I was able to have an impact in fighting the media battle for Israel.”

Levy said the Israeli government “doesn’t understand the importance of the media war, it did not have a proper mechanism in place at the beginning of the war and what was built at the beginning of the war has since unravelled”.

Levy was brought to Australia by the Jewish National Fund and was a guest speaker at the Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.

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