Border Police sharpshooter Sgt. First Class Barel Hadaria Shmueli was shot Aug. 21 at point-blank range during Palestinian rioting on the border fence with the Gaza Strip. On Aug. 30, he succumbed to his wounds and died. The incident had generated public controversy over the deployment of soldiers near the Gaza fence and over fire-opening instructions. More so, it has been shaking up the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel’s political echelons. One could say that the final bastion has crumbled. In the wake of Shmueli’s killing, the political right and especially followers of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have targeted the last remaining sacred cow of the Israeli ethos: the IDF.
This attack in social media reflects ongoing attempts by Netanyahu and his supporters to call into question the legitimacy of all official Israeli institutions. Their goal is clear: to erode the already fragile legitimacy of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his government. Many observers believed this wild, relentless onslaught by Netanyahu’s associates would come to a halt before crashing into the military, which many Israelis still view as a symbol of national consensus. They were wrong. Even when he was vacationing in Hawaii, Netanyahu had no qualms about exploiting the tragic killing for his own political needs.
