Netanyahu, in tatters over housing crisis

Sirous Shirzad: Zionist regime in the past five years has spent hard times due to its heavy defeat in two wars, namely July 2006 in Lebanon and January 2009 in Gaza. The Zionist community during the period has also been witness to a series of development which have stirred concerns among the regime’s authorities and its allies, especially the USA.

After the release of the Winograd’s fact finding group’s report on the 2006 Lebanese defeat and the Goldstone’s report on the 2008 Gaza defeat which led to the ouster of a number of Israeli commanders and political leaders, including the then premier, Ehud Olmert, it was got known that the Zionist community is in dire need of a remedy to the war-related frustration.

For the same reason, the Israeli community went for snap elections to bring to power a ‘powerful’ leader. The snap elections in March 2009 led to the victory of extremist groups who chanted the slogan of ‘security’. They then started to build a government which was commissioned to restore the lost grandeur of the regime. Kadima party secured 29 seats of the Knesset and Benjamin Netanyahu was elected premier.

Netanyahu put on his agenda the issue of security and started to hold several war games at colossal costs. During the moment, there were also rumors of the regime’s decisions to attack the neighboring countries but they were never materialized in light of the regime’s feeble position. Netanyahu’s cabinet used all its capacity to save its regime from a declining international position which came about after the 2008 Gaza carnage and the 2010 attack on the Gaza-bound Fleet of Freedom.
 
The developments made the Zionist community even more fragile. The cabinet could not meet its vows to the community and its shabby policies further weakened the trust of Israelis in the cabinet. They also got more isolated in the world.

The regime was enduring the bite of the inherited insecurity when another, larger security issue broke out, namely the Islamic awakening in the Middle East which flashed the red lights for Israel and reminded them of the idea first tabled 30 years ago by the late founder of Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini that Israel must be vanished. Hosni Mubarak, main Israeli ally in the region who was securing the 245-km border between ‘Israel’ and Egypt for free was ousted. The security issue got even worse after its ‘borders’ were swept by people from Lebanon and Syria.

The crises pushed numerous problems through the regime and the Zionist community. Schism broke out within the regime and social disorders witnessed a large rise. The regime is now facing an increasing amount of protests against an incompetent  Netanyahu in such matters as release of seized soldier Gilad Shalit, striking of Israeli medical staff and lately massive protests at the rising costs of housing. People are also likely to resume their protests over fuel price. The regime’s main ally, the US is no longer able to aid the regime as before in light of their own financial crisis.

The regime has allocated a major part of its budget to tackle with the movement of resistance in the region and has little to deal with the internal, economic problems. The ouster of Mubarak too added to the crisis as it cut off the flow of cheap gas to the regime. The regime also feels insecure on the Rafah crossing after it was opened under the influence of the popular uprising in Egypt.

The situation has made many analysts to think of the likely collapse of the regime in a near future. It also proved the Netanyahu was not the man once called “savior of Israel.”