Netanyahu stands alone

Binyamin Netanyahu is now his own war cabinet. He has scrapped the formal one after the resignation of two of its members last week. Now he is on his own although the two most extreme members of his overall cabinet will still be breathing down his neck, demanding no end to the war and no concessions. Netanyahu himself doesn't want to end the war until he has fulfilled his objectives of destroying Hamas for good and bringing all the surviving hostages home. But it must be a daily pain to have these two individuals constantly shouting in his ear about pushing on with the war in Gaza come what may. The two cabinet members, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, hold Netanyahu to ransom because without their support in his government his coalition would collapse. So he has to keep them sweet. Even Joe Biden has criticised them openly for being so far right wing and uncompromising. But this is politics in Israel and if Netanyahu wants to survive as prime minister which he desperately does, he has to listen to their demands. So he may have axed the war cabinet but he still has to remember that one false move and he'll be out of a job. And facing corruption charges. Not an ideal environment for talking peace.