Benjamin Netanyahu may not realize it yet, but his challenge against political odds is over. Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, who was re-elected in November despite an ongoing corruption trial and whom even rivals admitted was a political wizard, has run out of tricks. This case won’t happen any time soon, but his coalition of ultra-nationalists, religious fundamentalists and merely corrupt people is losing its moral legitimacy, even among a growing number of voters.

Netanyahu’s fatal mistake was to fire his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, on Sunday for calling on the government to halt its judicial revolution legislation, which would erode the independence of Israel’s Supreme Court and weaken the fragile system of checks and balances. of the country, effectively concentrating governance in the hands of the prime minister. Gallant noted that divisions within the military over the plan were deepening and that the protest movement among army reservists who refused to serve was growing, warning that the country’s security was in danger.

By firing bravely and ignoring his warning, Netanyahu placed loyalty to himself over loyalty to the country. As Iran nears the nuclear threshold, possibly within weeks, even as Palestinian terror attacks ramp up and Hezbollah probes weaknesses in the defenses of Israel’s northern border

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In preparation for the next war, Netanyahu is leading the erosion of military cohesion. The man who convinced Israelis that only he was strong and cunning enough to keep Israel safe in the Middle East has betrayed Israeli security.

Immediately after Netanyahu announced that Gallants would fire, tens of thousands of young people gathered in the streets, blocking traffic and lighting bonfires all night. Their ranks and a general strike continue to grow as I write today. Meanwhile, several members of Netanyahu’s Likud party declared support in the Knesset for suspending his judicial legislation and negotiating reforms with the opposition. For the first time, Netanyahu’s grip on his party wavered.

In a national speech Monday evening in Israel, the prime minister announced a temporary halt to the legislation.

Netanyahu’s miscalculation was to assume that the Israeli public would agree with his transparent effort to extricate himself from his legal troubles. Instead, an astonishing protest movement sprang up spontaneously since January, initially drawing tens of thousands and now hundreds of thousands to weekly demonstrations across the country.

By simultaneously attacking liberal Israelis on multiple fronts, from declining democracy to rising ultra-Orthodox power, pandering to political corruption to tolerating increasing settler violence, this administration left large numbers of Israelis feeling disenfranchised and desperate.

Resorting to the divisive political strategy that has served him in the past, Netanyahu sought to delegitimize the protesters by denouncing them as anarchists and leftists, not meaning patriots. His son, Yair, took it a step further and called the protesters Nazis. Meanwhile, some of Netanyahu’s supporters began physically attacking demonstrators, without the prime minister reprimanding him.

But this time the usual tactics didn’t work. There is nowhere more patriotic protest movement than this movement for Israeli democracy, which is led by veterans of the country’s strongest combat units and whose symbol is the Israeli flag. Even more than anger at Netanyahu, the strongest emotion felt among the protesters is overwhelming love for Israel and fear for its future.

The man who rose to power as the guardian of Israeli patriotism has been defeated by a movement of patriots.

Netanyahu’s tragedy is that at the end of his long political career, he is now jeopardizing his own most precious legacy. The leader who presided over the high of Israel

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tech revolution endangers the israeli economy with its judicial recklessness like

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tech companies are considering moving abroad and leading economists warn of an impending disaster.

Thanks to the Abraham Accords, initiated by the Trump administration and endorsed by Netanyahu, Israel established relations with four Arab countries, effectively ending the Arab world’s siege against the Jewish state. But by including extreme anti-Arab parties in his coalition, he jeopardizes the sustainability of those agreements.

No world leader did more to draw international attention to the danger of a nuclear Iran. Netanyahu’s solemn vow was that the Jewish state would never allow a regime that promotes Holocaust denial

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committed to the destruction of Israel to acquire nuclear weapons. Yet Netanyahu’s legal scheme has distracted and divided Israel and its military. If Iran acquires the bomb, so will Netanyahu’s legacy.

There is something biblical in the tragedy of Benjamin Netanyahu. Followers often greet him with an ancient Hebrew song in honor of King David, but replacing Netanyahu’s nickname: Bibi, King of Israel!

No doubt Bibi has been tempted to compare himself to David, the greatest king of ancient Israel. but in

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Interviewing journalist Bari Weiss shortly after being elected to his fifth term last fall, Netanyahu inadvertently revealed a darker premonition about his place in history. Asked to name his favorite biblical character, Netanyahu replied: King Saul. Hey was tragic.

Saul, the first king of Israel, ended his reign in defeat, half mad and disgraced, replaced by the upstart David. Netanyahu, the most talented and ambitious leader of his generation of Israeli politicians, could have been another David. Instead, as more and more sectors of Israeli society turn against him and his heroic story turns from savior to destroyer, it is the specter of Saul that haunts his end.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor.