The Architect of Disaster: Unpacking the Netanyahu Legacy – Part 2

The Weak Autocrat: How Netanyahu Became the Tail Wagged by His Extremist Ministers

For all his strongman bluster, Benjamin Netanyahu is perhaps the weakest Prime Minister in Israeli history. He has no governing vision of his own and no ability to say “no” to his coalition partners. The man who presents himself as the master strategist has been reduced to a spectator in his own government, watching as Ben Gvir and Smotrich dictate national policy.

Netanyahu’s political survival depends entirely on the 14 Knesset seats held by Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit and Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party. They know he cannot survive without them, and they have used that leverage to seize control of the levers of power. Netanyahu no longer sets policy. He approves what Ben Gvir and Smotrich demand.

Ben Gvir has transformed the Israel Police into his personal political militia, ordering them to crack down on anti-government protesters while ignoring settler violence against Palestinians. He had publicly threatened to resign if hostage deals went through, effectively holding a veto over military strategy. Netanyahu could fire him at any moment but does not, because Ben Gvir’s departure would mean coalition collapse and the end of Netanyahu’s immunity.

Smotrich has effectively become the de facto governor of the West Bank. He personally approves every new settlement outpost, every land seizure, every demolition order against Palestinian homes. He has bragged, “I am the one who decides what gets built and what gets destroyed.” His goal is annexation and permanent Palestinian subjugation, or better yet, expulsion. Netanyahu issues weak statements about “maintaining the status quo,” but Smotrich’s actions contradict them immediately.

The phrase “the tail wagging the dog” was coined for situations where a small part controls the whole. Ben Gvir’s party holds just 6 seats out of 120—5% of the legislature. Smotrich’s party holds 7 seats. Together, they represent barely 10% of the Israeli electorate. Yet this tiny faction dictates foreign policy, military strategy, and the nation’s moral character. They blocked hostage deals that would have saved lives. And Netanyahu surrendered completely.

Why? Because Netanyahu is a weak autocrat. He has the title of strongman—the tough talk, the media manipulation—but none of the actual governing power. A real autocrat can dismiss troublesome ministers. Netanyahu cannot, because his power derives not from popular mandate but from a fragile, desperate coalition of extremists. He has built a prison for himself, and Ben Gvir and Smotrich hold the keys.

The consequences have been catastrophic. Israeli security policy is no longer made by generals but by messianic settlers. Israel’s international standing collapsed as Western allies watch a convicted terror supporter and a self-declared annexationist colonialist dictate terms. The IDF’s morale has cratered as soldiers realize they are fighting not for national defense but for the expansionist fantasies of a radical fringe. Netanyahu tells himself he is “containing” them. This is a lie. He has not contained them; he has empowered them. The tail has devoured the dog from the inside.

The Refusal to Resign on October 8

In any functioning democracy, a leader under whose watch the worst massacre in the nation’s history occurred would resign within 24 hours. Golda Meir resigned after the Yom Kippur War, which was far less deadly. Menahem Begin after Sabra and Shatilla. But Netanyahu did not resign. He did not even apologize. Instead, he activated his political poison machine: blaming the military chiefs, the protest movement, the hostages’ families. He knows that the moment he steps down, his legal immunity evaporates and the prison doors open. He stays not because Israel needs him, but because he needs the Prime Minister’s chair to avoid a jail cell.

Conclusion: The Wreckage

The Netanyahu legacy is not one of security but of spectacular collapse. It is a legacy of abandoning the people of the south, financing the terrorists who murdered them, and sabotaging any partner for peace. As we have seen in the north, he has abandoned them as well. His is a legacy of unleashing Jewish settler terror while his criminal ministers—a police chief convicted of supporting terror and a finance minister who steals land—run amok. It is a legacy of a Prime Minister standing trial for bribery, actively destroying the courts to save his own skin.

But the deepest tragedy is his transformation from a strongman into a weak autocrat—a man so desperate to avoid prison that he has handed the reins of state to his most extreme coalition partners. Netanyahu did not merely fail to stop Ben Gvir and Smotrich; he elevated them, empowered them, and became their willing servant. The tail now wags the dog, and the dog is too corrupt and too cowardly to bite back.

When the history of the Jewish state is written, Benjamin Netanyahu will not be remembered as the defender of Israel. He will be remembered as the man who, through arrogance, cynicism, and an insatiable hunger for power, burned it all down—and then refused to let go of the matches. His legacy is the wreckage of a country, the blood of the innocent, and the corruption of everything Israel was meant to stand for. And that wreckage has Ben Gvir and Smotrich standing amid the ruins, grinning, while Netanyahu pretends he is still in charge.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)