The more moderate voices making decisions about the Israel-Gaza war are now gone

In Israel, there is a Hebrew saying largely adopted during times of war: sheket, yorim.

It translates to “quiet, we’re shooting”, and it reflects the widely held understanding politics and other distractions should be put aside for the good of the country while it’s fighting.

For many months in Israel, that’s what happened.

In the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks, Israelis came together, united in grief and anger, both politically and among other citizens.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the establishment of an emergency wartime unity government and war cabinet that included the addition of more centrist politicians — who weren’t previously in power — in key decision-making roles.

They all committed to forego partisanship while the country conducted a war inside Gaza on a scale never experienced before.

But eight months into the war, a growing number of Israelis are protesting on the streets, and politicians have decided the time for unity is over.

Netanyahu is at the heart of it all. The 74-year-old now has few dissenting voices around him as an expansion of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon gets closer.

Last week, the two centrist former generals, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, quit Netanyahu’s war cabinet.

They’d been brought in after October 7 and were seen as the more moderate voices alongside the PM’s right-wing network.

They accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war in Gaza for his own political ambitions to stay in power and claimed the prime minister had no feasible plan to end the war and rescue the hostages through a ceasefire deal.

After the departures of Gantz and Eisenkot, opposition groups declared a week of street civilian protests across the country that included blocking highways and mass demonstrations.

Crowds on the street chant “elections now” and tens of thousands of Israelis echo the concerns of Gantz and Eisenkot: that a deal needs to be made to get hostages taken from Israel into Gaza on October 7 out, and to end the fighting.

The anti-government protests are fuelled by anger and led by the hostages’ families, who are fed up with Benjamin Netanyahu.

Earlier this week, at least nine demonstrators were arrested near the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem, including Noam Dan, the relative of Israeli captive Ofer Calderon.

But Netanyahu is resisting, backed by his far-right coalition partners that have just been handed more decision-making power.

A large crowd of people holding signs in Hebrew. Some are also waving Israeli flags.

Prospects of second war increasing

After Gantz’s resignation, Netanyahu shut down the war cabinet, leaving only the far-right voices of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history to make the day-to-day decisions regarding the war.

Two of those extremists are Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who will now have even more influence given their role in the security cabinet, which is expected to take on more prominence in war-time decisions.

The security cabinet is a committee of ministers created to decide on national security matters — the war cabinet sat inside of it — and includes, among others, Ben-Gvir, as the national security minister, and Bezalel Smotrich as finance minister.

Middle East analysts say it’s a particularly dangerous moment, as one war threatens to turn into two, amid a spike in attacks on the Israel-Lebanon border.

Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have been trading rocket and drone attacks since the start of the Israel-Gaza war.

Hezbollah has said it will stop firing only when the Gaza war ends.

But the situation is escalating and Israeli officials are now openly discussing the option of war with Lebanon.

Last week, Hezbollah fired the most rockets it has launched at Israel in a single day since cross-border hostilities broke out eight months ago.

Israel’s military warned war could be next.

“Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation, one that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said earlier this week.

With the absence of moderate voices within an emergency wartime government, the far right is seizing the chance to promote a second war.

In recent days, Ben-Gvir has warned, “It is time for all of Lebanon to burn,” and Smotrich issued an ultimatum that Israel must “take” southern Lebanon if Hezbollah does not retreat.

Those voices are ready and primed for another fight.

It’s not surprising then, that United States President Joe Biden, who wants to avoid a second war, urgently dispatched a senior aide to Israel this week to calm the rising hostilities.

Netanyahu, at least in public statements, seems to be readying his troops for an attack if the danger to Israel’s security increases.

“Anyone who thinks that they can harm us and that we will sit on our hands is sorely mistaken,” he said in a visit to the north, near his country’s border with Lebanon, earlier this month.

“We can’t accept the continuation of the situation in the north. It won’t continue,” he added.

With the war cabinet now gone, it may be up to the US to step up its moderation attempts to reign in an escalating fight, as the prime minister is egged on by those closest to him

That won’t be an easy task, with relations between Netanyahu and Biden on shaky ground, and the Israeli PM making it clear this is his government, and that he holds ultimate power, even if it makes him unpopular at home and abroad.