Protests in Israel ‘could push Netanyahu out of his corner’

Protests in Israel ‘could push Netanyahu out of his corner’
Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor of public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says the ongoing protests and strike in Israel could bring the country to a critical junction should they grow in number and threaten Netanyahu’s coalition.
“If the Histadrut joins these protests, they could grow bigger and put real pressure on the Netanyahu government,” Qarmout told Al Jazeera, referring to Israel’s main labour union which called for a general strike today.
“There is anger, there is frustration and there is also the realisation that now we are closer to a year of this war, that the goals that Netanyahu has declared are near impossible to achieve.
“Before the onset of this war, Israel was already a divided society. Now you have the likes of [Finance Minister] Smotrich – he wants to impose sanctions, he calls for these demonstrations to end.”
The US could use the demonstrations to increase pressure on the Israeli government, he argues.
“We are approaching the US elections now. If the Americans are serious about exercising any leverage on Netanyahu, this could push Netanyahu out of his corner.”