Recent polls showed a decline in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s popularity, although he uses every platform to talk about his political and security achievements.
Netanyahu, who is also Minister of Defense, appears almost daily with soldiers on the border in the occupied Golan Heights or on the borders of Lebanon or around the Gaza Strip.
In the new poll, a total of 58 percent said they were either “unsatisfied” or “very unhappy” with the prime minister’s performance.
Only 7 percent of respondents said they were “very happy” with Netanyahu as defense minister while a further 26 percent said they were “satisfied.” Conversely, 25 percent said they were “unsatisfied” and 33 percent said they were “very unhappy.”
The poll reported by Channel 2 also showed that a potential political union between former Israeli chief of staff Benny Gantz and Yesh Atid could emerge as a serious challenger to the ruling Likud party.
Netanyahu would maintain a strong lead over his political rivals if elections were held today between the current parties in the Knesset plus Gantz's still hypothetical electoral list.
But if Gantz were to run on a joint ticket with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, the two could start to close in on Likud’s lead.
However, Netanyahu used Israel’s normalization with Arab states as another achievement. He announced: “great changes that are taking place in the Arab world in its relations with Israel,” referring to his historic visit to Oman.
The PM also referred to the first Chadian official to visit Israel, declaring his intentions to expand Israeli ties to the center of Africa.
Shabtai Shavit, a former Mossad head, attacked Netanyahu saying the government’s policy would bring Israel a huge danger in which violent clashes could erupt not only in the West Bank but on all fronts.
"We have become a nation in a cage with no hope and no future planning," he said.
Shavit said that Netanyahu ran a policy that did not achieve any positive progress.
“We have reached a point where Netanyahu is afraid of his audience and does not decide things he believes in, for fear that they will overthrow him.”
