TEL AVIV — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz are trying to force out chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir just eight months after appointing him to lead Israel’s military. The move is the latest escalation in a deepening domestic political and social crisis that is unfolding as the military confronts Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq, and Iran.

Israel’s democratic liberal camp is framing the broader political struggle — of which the attempt to oust Zamir is the latest front — as a battle over the identity of the Jewish state, encompassing its values, system of government and democracy. The confrontation began with the installation of Netanyahu's radical, right-wing government in December 2022 and its attempts to overhaul the judicial system by eroding the powers of the courts.

The attack on the judiciary spawned the most powerful civil protests in Israel’s history. Many expected Hamas' attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and its aftermath to quash what had been described as the government’s attempt to mount a judicial coup, but far from setting it aside or slowing it down, Netanyahu and his allies accelerated the push to implement their contentious agenda before judges in the Jerusalem District Court could hand down a verdict in the prime minister’s five-year corruption trial.

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