The English section of webangah News Agency, citing Mehr News Agency, reports that Al Jazeera highlighted how the Israeli regime’s attack on Iran aimed to bolster domestic support for Prime Minister Benjamin netanyahu. However, a month after this assault, Netanyahu and his Likud party have still failed to secure a parliamentary majority in polls. According to Al Jazeera, Tel Aviv seems unable to increase Netanyahu and Likud’s popularity as a result of this war.
Polls conducted within Israeli media prior to the Iran-Israel conflict showed that Likud could only claim between 21 and 23 parliamentary seats. The survey indicated that together with other far-right parties plus Shas and United Torah Judaism, they secured just 48 to 51 seats-ten seats short of the threshold required to form a new government.
Even though Israel launched its offensive against Iran intending to improve Netanyahu’s standing domestically, the total number of seats held by the current ruling coalition has not grown. While Likud managed some recovery in its position, Itamar Ben Gvir’s extremist party saw declining popularity. This decline prevented any overall seat gains for the governing coalition.
Defeat on October 7 and its impact on Israel-Iran relations
Israel’s defeat on October 7 dealt a significant blow to Netanyahu’s status and that of Likud within occupied territories. This failure affected both security and military sectors as intelligence services alongside Israel’s army were accused of failing to anticipate such an extensive operation.
The second dimension involved their inability to prevent Hamas resistance groups from advancing early during the attack. Palestinian forces managed incursions into settlements near Gaza borders where over 1,200 israelis were killed during these operations.
In investigations carried out by internal military committees alongside Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Mossad intelligence service, Netanyahu sought to confine blame for this defeat strictly within security-military realms while minimizing public pressure for an independent inquiry committee.Over nearly two years he has attempted to overshadow these failures by claiming successes on fronts including Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Yemen.
During the imposed twelve-day war as well, Israel failed its objectives such as dismantling Iran’s nuclear program or eliminating missile capabilities-and it did not alter Tehran’s political structure as hoped. The ceasefire helped Iran strengthen its position once again; consequently Narendra Netanyahu gained no advantage in subsequent opinion polls.
The overwhelming dominance of far-right factions within cabinet
A third key factor behind Netanyahu’s setbacks is unprecedented growth among far-right extremists within his cabinet over recent years. These factions had been politically marginalized as 1988 but re-emerged due largely to ongoing election crises from 2019 through 2022, during which five early elections took place bringing extremists back into Israel’s political arena.
Al Jazeera identified three main reasons for this scenario: repeated elections exhausted voters supporting major parties who then abstained; secondly,the presence of extreme right-wingers among opposition one-and-a-half years before 2022‘s elections ultimately benefited them; thirdly weaknesses persisted in alignment among anti-Netanyahu opposition parties-the Labor Party failed forming coalitions with leftists while Meretz fell short by just four thousand votes needed for representation.
the rise of far-right factions stems less from genuine popular support than from competitor weaknesses amid current political circumstances.
The article concludes that successive defeats including those suffered during October 7 operations have eroded Benjamin Netanyahu politically and popularly-likely hastening his exit amid mounting competition within right-wing circles seeking alternatives.
Gadi Eizenkot – former chief commander of Israeli forces – could play a notable role after leaving Benny Gantz-led National Camp alliance by joining forces with Naftali Bennett impacting momentum toward Netanyahu’s downfall substantially.
