Netanyahu wages war and fights for his own survival 

ISRAELIS TEND to come together in times of war. The horrendous terror attack launched from Gaza on October 7th by Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the enclave, has prompted just such unity in a country that had been divided for months by the judicial reforms of Binyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government. On October 11th Mr Netanyahu agreed to form an emergency war cabinet with Benny Gantz, the leader of the second-largest opposition party. As a former defence minister and commander of Israel’s armed forces, Mr Gantz will give heft to a government that has few ministers with experience of this kind of conflict. Even Mr Netanyahu, who has led the country through numerous short clashes and wars in Gaza, has not had to deal with a war on this scale. The formation of the new inner cabinet will influence the course of the fighting, and potentially what happens to Mr Netanyahu when it stops.