Pressure on Israel’s Netanyahu grows with new protests for a hostage deal

As Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for a hernia operation, Israeli hostages’ families join thousands of anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv to demand elections and a hostage release deal.

Protesters clash with police officers during a demonstration calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip and against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Picture: Getty Images.

Pressure is building on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over tough decisions that could strain his coalition and threaten his grip over management of Israel’s nearly six-month-long war with Hamas in Gaza.

Protests by families of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas during the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel are growing more heated, as frustration mounts over the lack of a ceasefire deal with Hamas that could free the remaining hostages.

Protests erupted in Israeli cities over the weekend, beginning on Saturday night. The families and their supporters, who have generally remained nonpartisan, made a rare decision to join anti-government protests in Tel Aviv to call for a deal. Police said they detained several protesters and used water cannons to disperse the crowds.

On Sunday, leaders of the protest groups began a planned multiday demonstration at the gates of Israel’s parliament in Jerusalem to demand elections and a hostage-release agreement. Thousands of Israelis blocked roads and marched to Netanyahu’s residence in one of the most vigorous demonstrations since the war started, according to images released by protest organisations.

Israeli negotiators travelled to Cairo on Sunday for another round of ceasefire talks.

Meanwhile, the debate over military service for young ultra-Orthodox Israelis is coming to a head after Israel’s top court ordered the government to stop funding stipends for religious students who will be subject to the draft after a waiver expired Sunday.

The concurrent political crises are testing the limits of Netanyahu’s political ties and skills. Netanyahu could lose the far-right flank of his coalition if he cuts a hostage deal that releases Palestinian prisoners who have killed Israelis. And he could lose ultra-Orthodox political parties critical to maintaining his current government if he doesn’t find a way to make their traditional exemption from military service permanent.

On the other hand, cementing military exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox or not achieving a deal that brings hostages home could weaken his hold on other members of his coalition.

“The government is forced to make a decision, and that makes it more difficult for Netanyahu to pull another rabbit from his sleeve,” Yohanan Plesner, president of the Jerusalem-based think tank Israel Democracy Institute, said of the dilemma over military service.

Netanyahu’s office said Sunday the prime minister would undergo hernia surgery, the latest in a string of health issues. He will be fully sedated and will hand over authority temporarily to Israel’s justice minister, the prime minister’s office said.

Netanyahu’s current coalition came to power with a slim majority after a promise to stabilise Israeli politics following five elections in under four years. Polling consistently shows the coalition would struggle to reseat itself after a new election, with Likud and a far-right party predicted to significantly lose ground.

Netanyahu’s core coalition members understand that their current alliance may be their best chance for remaining in power, said Uriel Abulof, a political scientist at Tel Aviv University. “The only way the coalition can fall is if they see it is in their own self interest,” Abulof said.

Ultra-Orthodox parties are working to hammer out a solution for a military service exemption that Netanyahu can try to convince the remainder of his coalition to pass this summer. The parliament’s recess in early April will give Netanyahu some breathing space.

This “will extend the time frame and lessen the tensions until they come back” in mid-May, said Reuven Hazan, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, creating a window for compromise.

Israel’s mandatory draft applies to most Jewish citizens as well as Druze-minority men. The ultra-Orthodox community’s resistance to serve has sparked tension with broader Israeli society, whose patience has been thinned by the war’s demands.

Putting more pressure on the issue, Israel’s defence establishment has pressed for a parallel set of laws to keep soldiers in service for longer, which Israeli officials say are critical to backstop manpower shortages exposed by the war.

Three politicians in Netanyahu’s own Likud party penned an open letter to the prime minister in February asking him to expand the base of those covered by the draft.

Tensions have emerged in the coalition around the hostage situation as well. War cabinet minister Benny Gantz, a Netanyahu rival who joined the government to show unity after war broke, has publicly leaned on Netanyahu to come to a deal to free the 130 hostages still held in Gaza. Critics say Netanyahu, who controls the leeway negotiators have to strike a deal, is giving priority to the destruction of Hamas’s military capability over a deal.

The prime minister said at a news conference Sunday that he believed military pressure alongside negotiations will lead to hostages being released. “Whoever says I am not doing everything to return our hostages is mistaken and is misleading,” he said.

Dow Jones