Netanyahu’s Military Masterstrokes Defy His Critics at Home and Abroad

In overseeing the killings of top foes and other battlefield successes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has boosted his position against a vocal chorus of critics who have questioned his leadership.

The sudden eruption of what may be Israel’s longest-running war last October came at an especially difficult time for the nation’s longest-serving premier. Already grappling with substantial backlash over attempts to restructure the judicial system, an ongoing corruption trial and record levels of Israeli-Palestinian violence, Netanyahu was the first to face blame for failing to prevent the attack against Israel led by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

He has since fought to reclaim the narrative, not only of Israel’s reputation for security but also of his legacy, one that has come under regular fire from political rivals at home and even allies abroad, including those in the White House.

Yet despite lingering concerns over the growing humanitarian toll of Israel’s war effort and fears of greater escalations ahead, Netanyahu now counts an unprecedented series of wins, including the assassinations of the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah. These victories may ultimately secure the place in history he has long sought to hold.

Yossi Kuperwasser, a former director general of the Israeli Strategic Affairs Ministry and head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Military Intelligence Directorate, told Newsweek about a conversation he had with Netanyahu months ago.

“You were picked by history to lead this effort, whether you like it or not,” Kuperwasser, now director of the Project on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, recounted telling Netanyahu. “And I’m not sure that the Americans and the Arab leaders and the Arab population around us understand the importance of your role, but that is the role that you were made for.”

“I think he understands the historical mission that he has on his shoulders, and he’s doing his best in order to make it happen,” Kuperwasser said. “It’s not easy.”

The task is made all the more difficult by the blowback Netanyahu has received for controversial decisions made from the beginning of the conflict.

Kuperwasser explained how, from “the first couple of days, there were always people who were telling him, ‘Stop here. You don’t need to go any farther. This is enough. It’s going to lead to a regional war that we don’t want. If you don’t do this, we won’t give you this help.'”

Among the most notable episodes occurred in May. U.S. President Joe Biden withheld the shipment of more than 3,000 heavy bombs and threatened to halt additional offensive weapons to Israel as Netanyahu openly defied U.S. warnings not to conduct a military incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah due to humanitarian concerns.

As ceasefire talks unraveled, Netanyahu went forward with what was described as a “limited” raid on the densely populated area, ultimately seizing control of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor that links the Palestinian territory to neighboring Egypt and is considered by the IDF to be a lifeline for Hamas.

He has since insisted on the IDF maintaining control of the crossing despite the White House’s calls for an eventual Israeli withdrawal in line with the latest rounds of still-deadlocked truce talks.

Last week, the IDF announced the killing of newly promoted Hamas Political Bureau chief Yahya Sinwar, considered the prime architect of the attacks last October, in an Israeli operation in Rafah.

“Definitely, [the Americans] underestimated our capabilities,” Kuperwasser said. “It’s a big mistake. Just like the capabilities of the Ukrainians, it’s not easy to estimate the capabilities of your friends.”

Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser under Netanyahu and head of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate Research Department, reached a similar conclusion about Washington’s role in Rafah.

“I think that history will not judge the Americans’ advice to Israel as very smart and very accurate relating to the situation,” Amidror, now a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, told Newsweek.

“They didn’t understand how strong the IDF is. They didn’t understand how determined the people of Israel are. They didn’t understand how important it is to smash Hamas and to show the Middle East that an extreme Islamist movement cannot succeed in a war against a democracy.”

“Rafah is a very important stage of the dismantling of Hamas as a military organization,” he added. “They didn’t believe that the IDF is smart enough to move the population from the north at the beginning and from Rafah in the second stage and how sensitive the Israelis are when they speak about the efforts that will be done to keep the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians.”

While Israeli officials argue that the IDF took unprecedented measures to mitigate harm to civilians, Netanyahu acknowledged at least one “tragic mishap” in which at least 45 people were killed when airstrikes triggered an inferno at a refugee tent camp in Rafah.

In total, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza counts more than 42,600 dead throughout the coastal Mediterranean territory since the war began. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and noncombatants, but the majority of those killed are identified as being women, children and elderly people.

Israeli officials said more than 1,100 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the initial Hamas-led attack in October 2023, along with around 250 taken hostages, about half of whom are believed to remain in captivity. The IDF has also reported on the deaths of more than 350 Israeli soldiers in the ensuing war.

The IDF estimates that more than 17,000 Hamas fighters have been killed in Gaza, including scores of front-line commanders such as Al-Qassam Brigades chief Mohammed Deif and his deputy, Marwan Issa. While the group continues to fight on, Netanyahu exudes confidence in the IDF’s capability to achieve his ambitious goal of eliminating Hamas as a functioning military and political entity altogether.

When Netanyahu unveiled this far-reaching objective shortly after the war began, it drew resistance even from within the IDF. But here, too, Netanyahu appears to have been vindicated by progress on the ground so far.

“I think Netanyahu now feels more confidence to overrule the military advice of the system,” Amidror said. “He learned to know that in some cases, his judgment is better than them.”

Netanyahu’s record on the northern front has, in some ways, proven even more stunning as the IDF takes on an even more formidable foe with the official goal of returning tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to their homes.

While not officially claimed by Israel, as was the case in July with the shocking assassination of Sinwar’s predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, the series of blasts that tore through communications devices primarily used by Hezbollah marked a major shift in the momentum of the battle with Hezbollah last month.

The killing of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in subsequent strikes in Beirut amid an intensive air campaign that has also killed scores of other top commanders upended the conflict entirely.

The Lebanese Health Ministry has reported on the deaths of nearly 2,500 people in the country since Israel began launching attacks last October. The IDF has claimed the deaths of more than 2,000 Hezbollah fighters in this time.

In the case of Lebanon, Amidror said that Netanyahu went against the advice of his top brass on October 11, 2023, by refraining from quickly opening a new front against Hezbollah, which began firing rockets and drones against Israel in solidarity with Hamas just a day into the war. Rather, he chose to bide his time and shift the focus once the Gaza theater was deemed sufficiently under control.

Amidror called this “the turning point” in which Netanyahu, a former commando of the IDF’s elite Sayerat Metkal unit, began to appreciate his own “understanding of the overall situation” beyond what was presented to him by military officials. “And, of course,” Amidror added, “he feels that he understands how to handle the American side much better than all Israelis.”

Netanyahu isn’t the first Israeli leader to clash with generals amid a decisive conflict. Amidror recalled that the nation’s fourth leader, Prime Minister Golda Meir, also opted to trust her instincts over those of the military after a joint surprise attack from Egypt and Syria thrust Israel into the 1973 Yom Kippur War, an event long considered to be the country’s biggest intelligence failure until Hamas’ attack almost 50 years later.

He is also not the first to emerge as a deeply polarizing figure, as noted by Efraim Karsh, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and professor of Middle East and Mediterranean Studies at King’s College.

Karsh compared Netanyahu’s divisiveness to former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, the former Zionist paramilitary leader who founded the right-wing Likud party that Netanyahu now chairs. Among other milestones in office, Begin led Israel through a historic peace treaty with Egypt and the first major war in Lebanon. The initially limited incursion extended into an 18-year occupation, from which Hezbollah would ultimately rise up.

Hezbollah may be severely wounded today as result of Israeli actions, but it continues to offer substantial resistance and even claimed an attempt on Netanyahu’s life in a drone attack against his residence last week.

The divisions in Israeli society amid the ongoing war were illustrated in a poll published last week by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem showing 37 percent of respondents were optimistic about the nation’s future, while 34 percent expressed pessimism. Around two-thirds called for Netanyahu’s resignation.

Today, “the jury is still out” when it comes to Netanyahu’s legacy in the making, Karsh told Newsweek. But his ability to turn the tide of the current conflict so dramatically while resisting protests from within and without earns him a special place in the nation’s 76-year history.

“Netanyahu has certainly saved post-10/7 Israel from an unmitigated, perhaps existential disaster by standing his ground against unprecedented international and domestic pressures,” Karsh said.

“While his role in the run-up to the disaster will undoubtedly be debated for some time,” he added, “had another leader headed Israel at this critical juncture, the war would have ended long ago with a resounding defeat to Israel, with catastrophic implications for Israel—and indeed the entire region.”

To Karsh, one of the most crucial shifts in the conflict occurred in June when two of Netanyahu’s highest-level critics, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, quit his wartime cabinet in protest of how the conflict was being handled.

“Their hugely influential presence at the small security cabinet running the war was a major hindrance to military-strategic initiative,” Karsh said. “Once they left, Netanyahu forced the hesitant IDF general staff to invade [Rafah]—in the face of Biden’s outright threat of suspension of critical ammunitions—and the rest is history.”

As was the case in 1973, Karsh said that Israel “was saved by the sheer valor of its ordinary soldiers.” He called the current conflict “a clear case of lions led by donkeys, as the British described their World War I experience.”

Among the most frequent criticisms levied by Gantz and Eisenkot against Netanyahu was the lack of a detailed plan for postwar Gaza.

While the war has severely degraded Hamas’ governance capabilities, no credible alternatives have emerged, and many in Israel are hesitant to repeat the post-1967 Six-Day War experience that led to a 38-year military occupation of Gaza, during which Hamas first emerged.

But Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Security and Strategy, felt this prioritization of taking action was not conditioned on complex, potentially open-ended negotiations, which allowed Netanyahu to wage such an effective campaign.

“We were totally unprepared for an invasion of Gaza. Yet, the recuperation of the IDF has been remarkable,” Inbar told Newsweek. “Netanyahu understood that the Gaza war is a lengthy affair and maneuvered against U.S. pressure and international impatience and misunderstanding of the nature of this war.”

“We are now in the mopping stage that will still take many months,” he added. “Only after having a Hamas-free Gaza is the time to decide on the ‘day after.'”

Yet still, today, while gathering the spoils of successive victories, Netanyahu’s reign remains rife with contradictions.

“Recent battlefield successes by the IDF have boosted Netanyahu’s approval ratings but made him no less a divisive figure in Israeli politics,” Shalom Lipner, who served as an adviser to seven consecutive Israeli prime ministers, including Netanyahu, told Newsweek.

“His toxicity is built into the system after last year’s bid to overhaul the judicial system and, more poignantly, since the tragic shortcomings of his leadership on October 7.”

Even with “an utterly disorganized opposition, which has struggled to pose any genuine challenge to his continued rule,” Lipner said Netanyahu’s current coalition may still fail to secure a majority in the next vote, officially scheduled to take place by October 2026 but subject to calls for a much earlier contest.

“His Likud party is surging in the polls—and his personal legacy now includes an additional, less humiliating chapter, but his governing coalition is still forecasted to lose its majority in the next election, when that comes to pass,” Lipner, who is now a fellow at the Atlantic Council, said.

The lasting impact of his risky defiance of the White House, successful as it turned out to be on the battlefield, also remains to be seen.

“Some of the tactical gambits that Netanyahu has made, against the expressed wishes of the Biden administration, have panned out and delivered gains for Israel’s war effort,” Lipner said.

“The more important question, however, is whether his conduct opposite the United States will have jeopardized Israel’s strategic relationship with Washington, without which it would have been unable to mount its current campaign and without which its regional posture would be degraded significantly,” he added.

Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. under Netanyahu, also felt that Washington may play a pivotal role in defining the Israeli premier’s legacy.

“A lot of it will depend on how the United States and the international community translates Israel’s military success into a strategic and diplomatic victory,” Oren told Newsweek.

He identified an underlying challenge: “So much of international criticism of Israel is filtered through the lens of Netanyahu,” who he said is “the focus of an immense amount of animus in certain circles in the West.”

Oren saw “immense possibilities” of historic magnitudes in the postwar landscape that eventually manifests in the Middle East. But capitalizing on such potential paved by military achievements would take another level of diplomatic maneuvering in which Israel has demonstrated a more mixed record.

He referenced past successes vis-à-vis Egypt and Jordan. But in other instances, such as those involving Iraq, Syria and the Palestinians, he said, “we prevailed on the battlefield, but not necessarily at the negotiating table.”

Oren said that an effort to “establish rapport” with the next U.S. leader would be critical to realizing any breakthroughs, as a presidential election looms over Washington in two weeks. Israel’s own political environment may also prove treacherous as Netanyahu awaits a larger inquiry into the shortcomings that led up to October 2023.

“We don’t know where Israeli politics are going to go, but assuming he is still in his current position, then it’s going to require some serious diplomacy to translate the military victories into diplomatic successes,” Oren said. “We’ve had many military successes. We haven’t always translated them into diplomatic successes.”

But even with uncertainties over the coming U.S. election, the direction of Israeli politics and other potentially even more volatile unknowns, such as how Netanyahu makes good on his promise to strike Iran directly for its missile attack earlier this month, Oren was confident that the world has not seen the last of the Israeli premier.

“I’ve always said that it’s premature to eulogize Netanyahu politically. And I think for the last at least 10 years, I’ve heard that this is the last year of Netanyahu,” Oren said. “It’s not.”

Originally published by Newsweek.