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Yair Netanyahu attacks chiefs
Yair Netanyahu, 32, has used social media to denounce Israel’s handling of the Gaza war and to target senior security leaders, including chief of staff Herzi Halevi, head of military intelligence Aharon Haliva, and head of Shin Bet Ronen Bar.
On Saturday, June 15, Yair Netanyahu took aim in a video posted on Instagram at the top leaders of Israeli security, calling them deadly failures or fatal mistakes.
The next day, he denounced treason by several officers on October 7 on the social network X, accusing the Supreme Court of shielding them by having suspended a controversial investigation into possible army lapses during Hamas’s attack.
In response to rumors stirred by Yair Netanyahu, the army spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said that destroying Hamas is like throwing sand in the eyes of the Israeli public, adding that Hamas is rooted in the hearts of the people.
The dispute has played out against Benjamin Netanyahu’s effort to frame responsibility for the October 7 collapse and the Gaza campaign’s failures around the military command.
Protests and opposition split
Israeli protests tied to the Gaza war and to the government’s performance have drawn tens of thousands of people in Tel Aviv, as Yair Netanyahu’s online attacks have sharpened public confrontation with the security establishment.
Dr. Naaman Al-Abed, a political analyst and researcher in international relations, said on Ekstra News that massive protests have returned to sweep Israeli streets once again to demand the release of detainees and to protest the government’s performance and its desire to evade responsibility for security and political failures.
Al-Abed also said Netanyahu fears forming an independent investigative committee under judicial supervision because its results could end his political career and land him behind bars, especially since he already faces three corruption cases.
In a separate opposition critique, Yair Lapid said the Israeli army has accomplished the tasks required of it while Netanyahu has failed politically, and he called for the formation of a new government.
Benny Gantz described the anticipated U.S.–Iran agreement as a "strategic failure" of the Israeli government, stressing that what is happening raises more concern than optimism.
Regional stakes and next moves
Beyond Gaza, the sources frame Israel’s wider war posture as a “permanent war” strategy that, in Le Rubicon’s account, recalls the logic of the “Rempart” operation implemented in 2002 by Ariel Sharon’s government.
“The head of the Democratic Party, Yair Golan, said that Netanyahu "poses a clear and direct threat to Israel's security," considering that his continued stay in power will lead to further decline on both political and strategic levels”
Le Rubicon says the operation “Iron Wall,” launched January 21, 2025 by the Israeli army in the West Bank, is tied to a deep and ongoing colonial process aimed at preventing the viability of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with sovereignty over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and East Jerusalem as capital.
The same article argues that Israeli grip on the West Bank accelerated during the Gaza war, where thousands of Palestinians face dispossession under the banner of “the fight against terrorism.”
In parallel, Anadolu Ajansı reports that Israeli party leaders attacked Benjamin Netanyahu after the announcement of a U.S.–Iran agreement to end the war, with Yair Golan calling it “Netanyahu's biggest strategic failure in our history.”
Anadolu Ajansı also quotes Itamar Ben-Gvir rejecting the deal, saying "We are not a banana republic; Israel is not bound by the agreement, nor beholden to the United States," while warning that Israel must not concede anything less than the dismantling of Hezbollah.
