Special to WorldTribune.com

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, blamed for Israel’s defeat in the war against Hamas, faces a revolt within his ruling Likud Party.

Leading members of the Likud, concerned over polls that oppose the unilateral withdrawal, have begun to distance themselves from Netanyahu as the conflict in the Gaza Strip turns into a war of attrition. The members have stressed that they would no longer support Netanyahu’s position to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“After withdrawing from Lebanon brought Hizbullah to power and withdrawing from the Gaza Strip brought Hamas to power, the lesson must be not to form a terrorist state in the heart of our land,” Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar said. “A Palestinian state would endanger Israel’s future.”

In an address on Aug. 3, Sa’ar, identified as the No. 2 figure in the Likud, objected to Netanyahu’s policy against Jewish communities in the West Bank. The interior minister, in an address to a Likud audience, said Israeli withdrawal was only encouraging terrorism.

“Where there are no settlements, there is no IDF, and where there is no IDF, there is terrorism,” Sa’ar said. “Terrorism was not defeated by withdrawing. It was strengthened by the withdrawal.”

Analysts said Sa’ar has been joined by others in Likud who oppose Netanyahu. They said the prime minister was even avoiding his Cabinet amid increasing criticism of his handling of the war against Hamas.

The prime minister, stung by a poll in which 73 percent agreed that Israel’s deterrence has declined, has been portrayed by those who’ve met him as increasingly isolated. On July 31, Netanyahu, who earlier fired his deputy defense minister, spent much of a Cabinet meeting warning critics and praising his own performance and that of his wife Sara.

“The ministers moved in their seats,” political analyst Shimon Shiffer reported in Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper on Aug. 4. “Some looked down, amazed. ‘This war has turned into a family business,’ one of them said later with disgust.”

Shiffer, regarded as one of the most informed journalists in Israel, said Netanyahu sought to direct the military in the Gaza war. The prime minister was even said to have selected military targets “according to perceptions that ranged from ‘calm will be met by calm’ to destroy the tunnels.’ ”

On Aug. 4, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who defected from the Likud on the eve of the war, acknowledged that the government failed to form a strategy against Hamas. In an appearance at the Knesset Defense and Foreign Relations Commission, Lieberman, who commands a sizable following in the coalition, said he opposed the unilateral ceasefire, violated by daily Hamas rocket attacks.

“We need to think about how we achieve quiet, take out the rocket threat and prevent [Hamas’] rejuvenation,” Lieberman said.

For his part, Netanyahu has stressed that his conduct of the war was coordinated with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, deemed a leading rival for leadership. The prime minister also said he worked closely with Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, himself severely criticized for the failure to defeat Hamas.

“Cooperation between me and the defense minister and the chief of staff is tight and enables us to precisely plan and carry out the campaign,” Netanyahu said amid a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip on late Aug. 2. “At the start of the operation we promised that we would restore quiet for the citizens of Israel and we will continue to act until this goal is achieved. This will take as much time as may be necessary; forces will be used accordingly.”

Political sources predict that tensions within Netanyahu’s coalition as well as his ruling party would escalate as Hamas maintains rocket and tunnel attacks. They said the prime minister as well as Cabinet members were bracing for a public backlash that could result in another commission of inquiry, which over the last 30 years ended the careers of numerous politicians and generals.

“This is a bad government that needs to be replaced,” opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog said.

  Furious Likud Party leaders charge Netanyahu capitulated to Hamas, Gideon Saar, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, Moshe Ya’alon