Many of my center‑left friends keep asking, almost daily and often in genuine bewilderment: “Why are people like you still closing ranks around the prime minister? What good do you see in him? How can you support this government after October 7? Isn’t it obvious it should step down?”
This column is addressed to you—Netanyahu’s political opponents—so that you might understand why, under today’s conditions, right‑wing Israelis like me are not rushing to demand his resignation or the dissolution of the coalition, even after the disaster we have endured. Let me walk you through the way we think.
I have never been one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s devoted admirers. I know his strengths and weaknesses; I have criticized him plenty. Five years ago, I even wrote that the time had come for him to leave office. I oppose quite a few government decisions, cringe at many coalition statements, and dislike the prime minister’s habit of sparring with rivals while soldiers are in the field. If he asked me, I would urge him to say plainly, “I bear responsibility,” and to visit Gaza‑envelope towns (Israeli communities within a few miles of the Strip) to speak face to face with survivors of the October 7 massacre.
Given all that, you might ask: why not call it quits?
‘Because of you’—the 2020 dilemma revisited
Back in 2020, when I first suggested Netanyahu should step aside, I quoted my friend, broadcaster Erel Segal: if the “dishonest, inciting war” against Netanyahu finally forces him out, Segal warned, that tactic will be used against every future right‑wing prime minister. “Netanyahu is a symbol,” he said; for his opponents he represents the whole Right. I was not sure I could tell Segal he was wrong then—and events since have only strengthened his point.
Netanyahu has been cast as a villain since he first won office in 1996. He was a villain before the judicial‑reform plan and after it was frozen; before October 7 and after October 7. He has never enjoyed a sober, issue‑by‑issue assessment of his record. His critics simply rotate the indictments each morning. When the same contempt is heaped on almost every other national‑camp figure—Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Missions Minister Orit Strock, National Security Minister Itamar Ben‑Gvir, mainstream Likud MKs—the message is clear: the real target is the voters who put them there.
Under a nonstop campaign of street protests, media demonization and opposition leaders who one moment urge concessions to Hamas and the next threaten to “settle accounts” with the Right if they return to power, no responsible conservative will volunteer to help topple an elected government.
A selective reckoning for October 7
Yes, the prime minister bears responsibility for what happens on his watch. But so do IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi—who commanded the border that morning—and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director Ronen Bar—whose service missed the warning signs. Both men left office to warm coverage. Netanyahu alone is painted as the sole culprit. When the state’s worst security failure in decades produces only one acceptable villain, people start to suspect the trial is political, not factual.
The same double standard marks the treatment of Smotrich and Strock. For years, they warned that Gaza was turning into a Hamas statelet and demanded a decisive military strike. In a rational discourse,e they would now be models of foresight. Instead, former defense minister Benny Gantz and ex‑chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot agreed to join the emergency government only if Smotrich and Ben‑Gvir were kept out of the war cabinet, while opposition leader Yair Lapid set similar conditions. The press dutifully brands the pair “dangerous messianists.” To right‑wing ears, that sounds like punishing those who called the threat correctly.
Incitement you seldom see on television
Many conservatives, myself included, recoil at the harsh tone some coalition MKs use. Yet most Israelis—and virtually all overseas viewers—never see the flip side: protest banners equating Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler, podium calls to “smash the serpent’s head,” chants of “traitor.” Clips surface almost only on Channel 14 (a small conservative station) or social‑media accounts; the main commercial channels ignore them. When week after week you watch those threats go unreported, you understand why dismantling the coalition under fire would reward intimidation and teach future governments that mob pressure beats ballots.
‘Incapacitation’ is a polite coup.
The latest proposal circulating among activists is to declare Netanyahu “incapacitated”—to remove him without an election. Strip away the legal varnish, and it is a coup, discarding millions of ballots because one camp dislikes the result. Israeli democracy provides for regular elections; it does not provide for benching a prime minister at the height of war because of protest slogans.
Left‑leaning legislators have, in the past, petitioned to shut down right‑wing radio stations, tried to hamstring Israel Hayom (the one major daily aligned with Likud), and now speak of yanking Channel 14’s license. That record makes right‑wing voters worry that a change of power could silence their last media outlets. They also remember that leading opposition figures urged reservists to refuse duty to stop judicial reform last year—delegitimizing the army itself to score political points.
When you add it all up, the conclusion is simple. You are not trying to persuade us that Netanyahu’s flaws outweigh his virtues; you are trying to expel him—and, by extension, us—from legitimate politics. The methods include street disruption and rhetoric that brands elected lawmakers “Nazis” and “terrorists.” If anything must not be allowed to win, it is that method.
Elections will come on schedule, not by coercion.
A full state inquiry into October 7 will happen. Elections will follow when the fighting ends. If voters send Netanyahu home, I will accept their verdict. Until then, forcing a resignation under a hurricane of incitement would normalize strong‑arm politics and mark half of Israel’s citizens as second‑class.
That is why, despite all my criticisms, I am not joining the “Go home” choir. Democracy cannot survive if governments fall to street pressure and media vilification instead of the ballot box.