JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reeling exactly a year ago from the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust: A staggering 3,800 trained Hamas terrorists from an overall number of 6,000 Palestinians invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The Iranian-backed Hamas and its supporters unleashed a scale of unprecedented barbarism, including beheadings and burning bodies, within the territory of the Jewish state, resulting in the mass murder of nearly 1,200 people, including over 30 Americans.
The U.S. designated terrorist movement Hamas also kidnapped more than 250 people on that fateful day that jolted Israel like none of the numerous wars against Iran-backed proxies that the tiny Jewish state has fought within this century. As of Monday, 101 hostages still remain in Hamas captivity, .
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu attends the funeral of Master Sgt. Gal Meir Eisenkot in the Herzliya cemetery on Dec. 8, 2023, in Herzliya, Israel. The 25-year-old, son of the cabinet minister and former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, died in Gaza. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
After a year of intense war with Hamas, including the opening of six additional fronts against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” Netanyahu has bounced back to take on the threat to Israel’s very existence. He is in his prime as a modern war planner and head of state, a number of Israeli experts told Fox News Digital, including Israel’s top diplomat to the United Nations.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu’s leadership in this war is a case study in tenacity and courage.”
“Netanyahu was completely shocked during the first hours on the first day of the attack, but at the same time, he understood what was going on and controlled events. Netanyahu responded very quickly,” Ariel Kahana, the senior diplomatic correspondent for the widely read Hebrew-language daily Israel Hayom, told Fox News Digital.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with soldiers stationed near the Gaza Strip, in Jerusalem on Oct. 18, 2023. (Avi Ohayon (GPO)/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Kahana referenced Netanyahu’s public announcement on Oct. 7, in which he declared, “Citizens of Israel, we are at war, not in an operation or in rounds, but at war. This morning, Hamas launched a murderous surprise attack against the State of Israel and its citizens.”
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Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, said, “This isn’t a war Israel started nor is it a war Israel wanted. But, under the leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel has succeeded in mitigating the threat of Hamas by destroying its tunnel infrastructure and taking out its leaders. Israel is also successfully degrading Hezbollah in the north by eliminating its senior leadership and launching a targeted operation in southern Lebanon with the goal of pushing the group north of the Litani River and reducing the threat the terrorist organization poses to our northern border.”
Danon, who is a member of Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party, added, “While we are making progress, there is still work to be done. We still have 101 hostages who are held in brutal captivity in Gaza, and we still have 70,000 Israelis who are refugees in their own country, unable to return to their homes in the north.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with soldiers on the Israel-Lebanon border on Sunday, Oct. 6. (Haim Tzach/Israeli Prime Minister’s Office)
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Prior to Oct. 7, Netanyahu was an embattled prime minister. His right-wing coalition government had suffered public humiliation when his administration was forced to abandon its judicial reform plan because of massive civil society protests.
Now, with a string of tactical victories over Hezbollah and Hamas’ top leaders, including Israeli control over most of the Gaza Strip, Bibi, as he is known in Israel by his nickname, has gained popularity in political polling.
“Bibi made the right actions against Hamas and Hezbollah. That is why you see him rising in the polls.”
One key turning point for Israel is the near total decimation of the leadership of the U.S. classified terrorist movement Hezbollah, including its leader Hassan Nasrallah, in Lebanon.
The de facto ruler over the Lebanese state, Hezbollah, launched missiles at Israel one day after the Hamas invasion, on Oct. 8. Last week, Israeli ground troops entered south Lebanon, with a view toward rooting out Hezbollah terrorists and missiles that sparked the flight of as many as 70,000 Israelis from their homes in the north.
Kahana noted, “Bibi made the right actions against Hamas and Hezbollah. That is why you see him rising in the polls. He is the only one to use the term victory. You don’t hear that from the security establishment.” He cited the examples of Bibi’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and Herzi Halevi , the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, who “are not talking about a complete defeat of Hamas.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the chamber of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol on July 24, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
The veteran Israeli commentator said Israel’s seizure of the southern Gaza city of Rafah was a telling example of a clash between Bibi and his war planners, Gallant and Halevi. There was hesitation on the part of Gallant and Halevi while Netanyahu wanted to expedite the capture of Rafah, the last major holdout of sizeable Hamas terrorist forces. Kahana chalked up a possible explanation of delay from Gallant and Halevi to the Biden administration’s interference in having expressed opposition to the IDF operation in Rafah.
After a four-month offensive in Rafah, the IDF, in September, declared victory over Hamas’ Rafah brigade. The incursion into Rafah also secured the release of four Israeli hostages in June. From May to September, the IDF eliminated thousands of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in Rafah.
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Thousands of Israelis gathered in Ra’anana to pay their final respects to Almog Sarusi, who was abducted by Hamas terrorists from the Nova Music Festival and killed in captivity. (Yossi Zeliger/TPS-IL)
According to Kahana, “Bibi had to push the army to act.” He compared Bibi to Britain’s WWII prime minister, Winston Churchill, who demanded that his army do certain things but encountered resistance. Kahana noted, “Netanyahu has full responsibility for what brought about Oct. 7, but he is leading the war better than Gallant, Halevi and Benny Gantz.”
“What is the strategy, what is the exit plan in the war against Hezbollah?”
Gantz, a retired general and leader of the main opposition party, left Bibi’s war cabinet in June.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approves strikes against Hezbollah from a hotel in New York. (Fox News)
Yet Bibi still has many critics who believe he should have tendered his resignation on Oct. 7 or a few months into the war against Hamas. Netanyahu has also been accused of forgoing the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and thousands of Israelis have protested on a near weekly basis against his policies since the war began.
Yossi Melman, a veteran Israeli columnist for the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, is one of Bibi’s sharpest critics. Melman said, “His performance is very bad.” He said Bibi has “no vision and no strategy.” Melman asked, “What is the strategy, what is the exit plan in the war against Hezbollah?”
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A destroyed home riddled with bullets, following the deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip, in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel, Nov. 2, 2023. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo)
He claimed, “Most of his decisions are about political and personal survival.”
Israel’s then-attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, charged Netanyahu with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a legal saga that started four years ago and is still unfolding. Netanyahu has vehemently denied all the allegations against him.
Melman also stated that Netanyahu, along with his cabinet, military and security chiefs, refused to accept responsibility for Oct. 7.
As one of Israel’s leading intelligence experts, he attributed the penetration of Hezbollah’s leadership structure to the “last four chiefs of the Mossad and the military chiefs. “Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, built these abilities over the years,” he said.
Thousands of Israelis protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for not signing the cease-fire agreement with Gaza and to demand a hostage swap deal with Palestinians in Jerusalem on Sept. 5, 2024. (Ameer Abed Rabbo/Anadolu via Getty Images)
He also noted that Netanyahu also “strained relations with the U.S. in an unprecedented way. His performance is full of ungratefulness. The U.S. sent air carriers and the U.S. provided $14 billion in extra military aid and resupplied ammunition. Without that, Israel could not sustain one year against Gaza and now Lebanon and also Iran.”
Melman charged that Bibi has failed to secure the freedom of 101 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
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Caroline Glick, who served as an adviser to Netanyahu, took issue with criticism against him, pointing out, “Prime Minister Netanyahu’s leadership in this war is a case study in tenacity and courage. Israel’s other political leaders and military leadership all demanded that he capitulate to continuous pressure from the Biden-Harris administration to stand down and permit Hamas to survive and accept Hezbollah’s continued presence on the border, sufficing with an entirely defensive posture.”
She continued, “Had Israel agreed, its regional standing would have completely collapsed. He refused. His tenacious refusal to give up the fight and determination to fight to victory is the reason Israel has been able to turn the corner. Israel is winning today in a way that seemed unimaginable a year ago. We never would have made it to this turning point had it not been for Netanyahu.”