From the outside Israel seems increasingly divided and broken.
Like a dam breaking, hundreds of thousands poured onto the streets of Tel Aviv in mourning and fury at the deaths of six more hostages.
The target of their ire was less the people who captured the hostages and reportedly murdered them, more the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
These were the largest demonstrations in 18 months, half a million in Tel Aviv and other cities. And for good reason.
There has been a sense building for months now among Israelis that something must give. The new forever war being waged in their name shows no end in sight and it is time for a reckoning.
Middle East latest: General strike called in Israel as pressure grows on Netanyahu
There is a consensus forming among Israel’s commentators and opinion formers across the political spectrum that the obstacle to a deal bringing home the hostages is the prime minister.
It is no longer just those observers on the left blaming him. The ceasefire deal being pushed by the US is on life support because Mr Netanyahu shifted his position at the 11th hour of negotiations and made new demands.
His own senior negotiators were so frustrated by his vacillation they leaked evidence of it to the press.
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Tap here
Hamas have played fast and loose too, not least sending a suicide bomber to Tel Aviv at the height of negotiations.
But diplomats close to the negotiations say there is little doubt that were it not for Mr Netanyahu’s tactics an agreement would have been made and the hostages, or many of them, would be coming home.
Read more:Satellite evidence suggests Israel is building long-term presence in GazaHamas commander killed in West Bank, Israeli military says
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:54
Protesters calling for the immediate return of the hostages that remain in Gaza
A reckoning is of course coming. It is just a question of time. And Mr Netanyahu knows that any ceasefire deal brings that moment closer.
What follows could lay bare his failures as leader before 7 October and since.
A sense of that came from Yair Lapid, the Israeli opposition leader, who last week claimed there were “repeated strategic warnings of an eruption of violence and the loss of deterrence” before 7 October.
There is also a sense of failure and loss of confidence among Israelis, which is profoundly shocking to outsiders who know them well.
As one veteran Israeli observer put it to me recently, whatever their crises, Israelis have always believed in the end they would bounce back and prevail. But now they are not sure. That is a fundamental break with the past and it is deeply unnerving.
It is essential for the national psyche for Israelis to move on. But they will only recover their chutzpah when they establish what went wrong.
Central to that process will be the way they handle the leader at the centre of it all, Mr Netanyahu.
The prime minister has pressing political reasons not to sign a ceasefire deal. It could torpedo his government. His far-right extremist coalition partners might walk.
But those who know the prime minister say there’s more than that at play. He is worried about his legacy and clings to the hope he can still claw victory from the quagmire in Gaza.
He sees himself as an Israeli Churchill and anything short of the total victory he promised is not acceptable, however deluded that seems.
Six months ago Joe Biden warned that Mr Netanyahu was “hurting Israel” more than helping it.
More and more Israelis believe their prime minister is delaying the inevitable for no reason but his own political survival and that selfishness is now costing lives.
That cannot go on indefinitely. Something will have to give.
Watch Sky News’ The World with Yalda Hakim from Monday night at 9pm.
Source : Sky News
