“The extent to which Israel is ruled by unelected officials is difficult to convey to outsiders. It sounds too fantastic”
A number of hostages released from Gaza have reported that during their captivity, whenever there were demonstrations against the government for its failure “to bring back” the hostages (as if it were Prime Minister Netanyahu and not Hamas holding the hostages and opposing their return), Hamas hardened its negotiating positions.
Already 40,000 people are reported (crowd estimates being highly subjective) to have marched in Tel Aviv last Wednesday to protest the cabinet decision to fire Ronen Bar as head of the Shin Bet (Shabak), Israel’s counter-terrorism service.
At another mass demonstration on Motzaei Shabbos, opposition leader Yair Lapid threatened to call for a general strike and a tax revolt if the government defies a High Court ruling against Bar’s firing. And Yair Golan, former deputy chief of staff and head of the new Democrats party, called for the overthrow of the government if it did not obey the High Court.
At the same time, there have been smaller demonstrations on behalf of the hostages since the IDF’s renewed bombing of Hamas in Gaza and the elimination of numerous senior Hamas officials. The latter groups charged the government with abandoning the remaining 60 or so hostages, of whom less than half are believed to still be alive, and signing their death warrant by ending the ceasefire with Hamas.
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