Protests that culminated in a mass rally in Tel Aviv attended by hundreds of thousands of people over the weekend have exposed a yawning chasm between many Israelis and the unpopular hard-line government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Demonstrations called for Sunday had been billed as a day of Israeli solidarity with the families of the hostages held in Gaza and a call to stop the war and bring the captives home. Many businesses observed a popular strike and groups of activists and sympathizers blocked major highways as protests went on into the night. Dozens were arrested.
The scale of the turnout in Tel Aviv indicated that pressure is intensifying on Mr. Netanyahu, who has been almost impervious to public sentiment two years into Israel’s increasingly contentious and expanding offensive in Gaza, set off by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel.
The Israeli public is particularly over the stated goals in Gaza of the Israeli government: eliminating Hamas as a military and ruling force and releasing the remaining 50 hostages, about 20 of whom Israel believes to be alive.
Many experts have argued that these two goals are contradictory and unachievable as a joint strategy, since the only practical way to free the hostages is to negotiate their release with Hamas, while the militant group has essentially conditioned their release on its own survival.
The main demand of the protesters on Sunday was for the government to prioritize bringing the hostages home. That comes as the government and military move ahead with a plan to take over Gaza City, and possibly the rest of the enclave, in the face of international censure, a dire humanitarian crisis and concerns that the campaign could further endanger the lives of the captives.
“Trying to achieve both goals in tandem is no longer valid when you are approaching two years since the October attack,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan research group based in Jerusalem.
“While defeating Hamas may take many more months and years, bringing back the hostages doesn’t have same time frame,” he said. Recent videos of two of the hostages, released by their captors, showed them in an emaciated state, alarming Israelis and raising questions about how long they could stay alive.
But in another inherent contradiction, Mr. Plesner noted, the less popular Mr. Netanyahu feels and the less support he garners in opinion polls, the more he needs the continued support of the far-right governing coalition partners he relies on to stay in power — and who oppose ending the war.
So for now, Mr. Plesner said, “The protests matter less, and intra-coalition politics carry more weight.”
Isabel Kershner, a Times correspondent in Jerusalem, has been reporting on Israeli and Palestinian affairs since 1990.
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