Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is viewed as an all-powerful leader who enjoys a large public of supporters and believers who will follow him anywhere. The “Netanyahu fans” who swear by him ignore police investigations and police recommendations against him, considering them as illegitimate attempts to bring down an incumbent premier elected by the public. The fans close their eyes to all the state’s witnesses, the accumulating evidence and testimonies and close the circle around their leader through thick and thin. The working assumption of Israel’s political observers was, until recently, that Netanyahu enjoys a “captive audience” that is entranced or hypnotized by its leader and will support him unconditionally.
But last week’s events, in which Netanyahu folded in record time vis-a-vis his crowd of supporters on the issue of deporting African work infiltrators from Israel, turned this assumption upside down. The question is, what came first, the chicken or the egg? Are Netanyahu’s supporters really mesmerized by him, or perhaps the opposite is true — perhaps Netanyahu is bewitched or hypnotized by his political base? Is Netanyahu a leader who commands a huge public that has followed him blindly for many long years, or is he perhaps a leader who adapts himself to that specific populace? Maybe he checks which way the wind is blowing within that public on any given day, and then modifies his policies accordingly?
