As Israelis band together following Saturday’s surprise attack by Hamas, the political turmoil facing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu will likely be set aside — at least for now — a Northeastern University expert says. “In the short term, (the attack) takes a lot of the internal struggles in Israel and certainly puts them on hold,” says Daniel Urman, director of the Law and Public Policy minor at Northeastern’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs.
By saying the attacks by Palestinian militants from the occupied Gaza Strip mean “we are at war,” Netanyahu returns Israel to fighting external enemies rather than internal political foes, Urman says. “That helps whip up support,” he says. But if future investigations show that Israeli leadership was incompetent in identifying warning signs of an attack, “that could absolutely dissolve his government and hurt him down the road.”
