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A major protest broke out on Saturday Night in Tel Aviv to voice opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—demanding new elections to be held and accusing the current government of being inept.
The Jerusalem Post reported about 2000 demonstrators materialized on Kaplan Street in central Tel Aviv, including some who clashed with police. The report noted that there were about 30 other demonstrations across the country.
New elections in Israel are not required until October 2026, but many have called for a new vote sooner rather than later because of Netanyahu’s unpopularity. Gadi Eisenkot, the former armed forces chief of staff in Netanyahu’s war cabinet, said last month that a vote for a new prime minister should be held in the next few months.
In November, Yair Lapid, the former soap opera star and ad pitchman and Netanyahu’s opposition leader, called on his successor to step down because the Israeli government is “not functioning.”
Amos Malka, the former head of Israel’s Intelligence Branch, told The Jerusalem Post, “They tell us, ‘Elections now? In the middle of a war?’ We say—yes. There are prices to be paid, but the price of this messianic government remaining in power with an incompetent leader at its head is many times higher.”
Malka said Netanyahu’s government has been an unfathomable failure and it is unforgivable.
“The intelligence and operational ranks, up to senior officials and commanding officers, failed, took responsibility, and will learn from past mistakes. Not like officials in the political echelons, certainly not the prime minister. Since October 7, he has been managing a war of political survival without any red lines,” he said.
TRENDPOST: Malka summed up what The Trends Journal has been saying since the start of the war. (See “WITH NETANYAHU FACING POSSIBILITY OF ELECTION, HE’LL KEEP RAMPING UP THE WAR” 6 Feb 2024, “NETANYAHU: ISRAEL WAR WILL NOT STOP UNTIL WE ACHIEVE ‘TOTAL VICTORY’” 13 Feb 2024, “ISRAEL FACES CIVIL WAR AMID MASSIVE PROTESTS AGAINST NETANYAHU AND EXTREMIST GOVERNMENT” 24 Jan 2024, and “ISRAEL SAW PLANS FOR HAMAS ATTACK, SUPPORTING CLAIM THAT NETANYAHU KNEW” 5 Dec 2023.)
Most Americans have no clue that as a result of his Judicial Reform Act there were 39 weeks of major protests against Netanyahu before the 7 October attack by Hamas. Furthermore his cobbled together government, according to the mainstream media is filled with “far-right extremists such as racists like Itamar Ben-Gvir, his national security minister who said, “My right, the right of my wife and my children to move around Judea and Samaria is more important than freedom of movement for the Arabs.”
Ben-Gvir has told Netanyahu that he will dissolve the government if he ever eases the war effort in Gaza, and has recommended removing all Palestinians from the enclave as a humanitarian solution.
Netanyahu, who has reportedly bragged in private that he is the only Israeli leader who could keep that from happening, said giving the Palestinians statehood would be a “huge reward” for the 7 October Hamas attack.
The Protest
The protesters in Tel Aviv on Saturday night had a clear message that they wanted an immediate resignation of the government, early elections, and an agreement with Hamas on an exchange for the remaining prisoners still held in captivity.
This protest is chanted, “Elections now!” and “Bring back the hostages now.”
The protest occurred as the death toll in Gaza was near 31,000. There are about 100 hostages still alive in Gaza. About 31 are presumed dead.
TRENDPOST: The Trends Journal has noted that the brutality and genocide in Gaza have nothing to do with rescuing hostages, rather an effort by Israel to collectively punish Palestinians and try to intimidate neighbors. Indeed, what does killing over 30,000, seriously wounding over 80,000, and bombing Gaza into ruin have to do with “getting Hamas?”
Family members of hostages have clashed with Israeli hardline politicians. There was a meeting held in November about a bill that would mandate the death penalty for terrorists. Relatives of hostages said the discussion alone was madness because the bill eliminated any chance of the hostages being returned.
Tzvika Fogel of extremist Otzma Yehudit, accused those relatives of “representing Hamas.”