In the eyes of his opponents, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was always the usual suspect when it came to exploiting security and defense situations for political gain. Since he was first elected in 1996 and then again in 2009, there hasn't been an escalation that someone or other hasn't blamed Netanyahu for starting.
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It's not important that every time, it has been proven that these are delusional and ridiculous claims – they haven't stopped, and in the current round of fighting, have even increased. They couldn't be farther from the truth, and it turns out that Netanyahu is a serial miser of opportunities when it comes to military campaigns. The backing he has received form the citizens of Israel, including those who live on the front lines, soared sky-high every time he gave orders to launch a military operation. The people gave him their total support. Regional council heads in the western Negev begged him to order the IDF to complete the mission, and are willing to take the fire raining down on them for as long as it will take.
And this isn't even the right-wing base, which demanded that the Gaza Strip be drowned in blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. And every time, it ended with a sigh. Back when Gaza was a central issue, when party leaders on the Right competed to be the one to speak most harshly about Hamas, which rules it, Netanyahu repeatedly went against his most fundamental political interests as a right-wing leader at times when others were breathing down his neck.
The current battle doesn't appear to be different from the ones that preceded it. This time, too – or so it appears – Hamas won't be defeated, won't raise a white flag, and will continue to fire rockets at Israeli communities up until the very last second it is allowed to do so. Between the rounds of escalation, Netanyahu also worked against what could have been considered a political move and continued to allow monthly money transfers to Hamas, indirect negotiations with Hamas about a long-term truce, stood by while Gazans sent explosives-laden balloons to burn the fields and homes of the Jews' living near the border, and ever took action to return the fallen soldiers who have yet to be given a Jewish burial.
And still, something in this round of fighting is different, and this is probably what fanned the flames of the conspiracy theories, with many of Netanyahu's opponents adopting the insane line that the prime minister launched a military campaign for political reasons – the fact that this time, Netanyahu has in fact benefitted politically. The military operation and the civil uprising in mixed cities in Israel brought down the nascent left-wing government. Netanyahu could not have wished for a better scenario at a better time. But all the actions in the field actually demonstrate that the prime minister hasn't done anything different from what he did the previous times. Again, he did everything he could to calm things down before they escalated. Apart from that, one could say that the conduct of the government, the police, and the army in handling the events that preceded the round of fighting with Hamas was nothing less than embarrassing. The capitulation at Damascus Gate, the exhibition of helplessness in Lod, the pressure on Itamar Ben-Gvir to leave Sheikh Jarrah, the attempt to cancel the flag parade on Jerusalem Day, and the concession of sovereignty on the Temple Mount – which continues even now – were not intended to prompt an escalation of violence – they were intended to do the opposite.
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