In his own televised speech, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid called the war a \u201cstrategic debacle\u201d and a \u201cdiplomatic disaster on a scale I don\u2019t recall ever seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, considered Netanyahu\u2019s most potent rival in the upcoming vote, was quick to warn that the prime minister\u2019s handling of the war left Israel vulnerable to a \u201cvengeful Iran,\u201d which will be even more determined to go nuclear. And Yair Golan, who leads The Democrats, accused the prime minister of orchestrating \u201cone of the gravest strategic failures Israel has known.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n Netanyahu \u201ccame out and said he had a great victory and achieved everything,\u201d said pollster Mitchell Barak of Keevoon Research Strategy & Communications. \u201cAnd all of the opposition people said it was a failure. Election season is starting now.\u201d<\/p>\n And the first TV polls<\/a>, published a day after the ceasefire, showed a dip in support for Netanyahu and his coalition allies, with majority public opposition to the halt in fighting. (Israeli opinion polls have often proved unreliable, but do give a sense of public sentiment.)<\/p>\n \t When the war was getting underway in early March, many believed Netanyahu saw it as a way to boost his standing among the electorate, with Israelis set to go to the ballot box in October, though the vote may still be earlier. The election will be the first time Israelis will get to vote on their national leaders since the October 7, 2023, attack, and Netanyahu was thought to be keen to scrub the security debacle and ensuing diplomatic isolation over the war in Gaza from his record.<\/p>\n Netanyahu was hoping that a \u201cnarrative of a win over Iran would boost the PM\u2019s reelection chances and shift the narrative away from October 7<\/a>,\u201d one coalition insider argued at the time.<\/p>\n The Prime Minister, the source said at the time, said that \u201cregime change [in Iran] plus a Saudi [normalization] deal could be enough to be that game changer.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, the war remained largely popular in Israel, despite daily missile attacks that disrupted life and killed nearly two dozen. Throughout the fighting, Netanyahu\u2019s political opponents held their fire to a significant degree.<\/p>\n \t With the ceasefire, though, Netanyahu now faces the prospect of heavy criticism from his political opponents, the return of large anti-government demonstrations largely silenced by the war, and the unenviable task of selling a war that appeared to fall short<\/a> of any of its goals as a win.<\/p>\n While admitting that Israel still \u201chas more goals to complete\u201d in Iran, Netanyahu insisted this week that Jerusalem and Washington had together \u201cdramatically changed the face of the Middle East in Israel\u2019s favor\u201d and that any minimization of such accomplishments was attributable to either ignorance or \u201culterior motives.\u201d<\/p>\n While Netanyahu managed to seriously degrade Iran\u2019s capabilities, its armed forces maintained their ability to fire consistently at Israel and Arab states and to close the Strait of Hormuz through the credibility of their threats.<\/p>\n Though weakened, all of Iran\u2019s proxies still exist and are still armed \u2014 and in the case of Hezbollah, still fighting, highlighting the fact that the military overestimated the damage done to Hezbollah\u2019s capabilities<\/a> during the 2024 ground offensive in Lebanon.<\/p>\n \t The claims of Israel\u2019s achievements in Iran were reminiscent of Netanyahu\u2019s proclamations following the 12-day war in June.<\/p>\n Israel removed \u201ctwo existential threats \u2014 the threat of destruction via nuclear weapons and the threat of destruction via 20,000 ballistic missiles,\u201d he said at the time, hailing \u201ca historic victory\u201d that would \u201cabide for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet less than eight months later, Israel was back fighting Iran again, with Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles forcing most of the population to get re-acquainted with bomb shelters and air raid warnings.<\/p>\n While that round of fighting managed to build some\u00a0political lift for Netanyahu<\/a>, it largely came at the expense of his natural partners on the right. At the start of the current war, polls showed him gaining again<\/a>, though again largely to his allies\u2019 detriment.<\/p>\n Complicating matters further is the fact that the latest war may have undermined whatever points he won with the public in June. In December, a poll by the Jewish People Policy Institute found that 28 percent of respondents believed the June war had accomplished less than previously thought.<\/p>\n \t When the same question was posed in March, 42% had a more negative view of the June war\u2019s accomplishments. And while 24% had said in December that they were more sanguine on what the war achieved, once Israel went back to fighting in March, only 13% said they now thought the June war had been more successful than their earlier understanding.<\/p>\n As of this writing, the ceasefire is not yet two days old, and it\u2019s much too early to fully grasp how the public views its end, assuming fighting does not resume.<\/p>\n How Israelis feel about Netanyahu\u2019s decision to go to battle against Iran again may also be shaped by the result of upcoming US-Iranian negotiations in Islamabad, which could leave Israel in the lurch by giving the Iranians concessions opposed by Jerusalem.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/F260115YS19-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tFormer Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett with Leader of the Opposition MK Yair Lapid, during a march in support of the conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews into the IDF, from the entrance of Jerusalem to the Knesset, January 15, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AP26096322158715-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tRescue workers and military personnel carry the body of a victim from the rubble of a residential building, a day after it was struck by an Iranian missile in Haifa, Israel, April 6, 2026. (AP\/Ariel Schalit)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AFP__20260409__A7987GR__v2__HighRes__IsraelLebanonIranUsWarShelter-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tA television channel with an image of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the neonatal unit in an underground bomb shelter built into the Carmel Medical Center in the northern city of Haifa, on April 9, 2026. (Marco Longari\/ AFP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/F260330AH002-e1774860805157-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tSmoke rises from the oil refinery in Haifa following a missile attack fired from Iran and Lebanon at Israel, March 30, 2026. (Anthony Hershko\/Flash90)<\/p>\n
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