JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
At the start of this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was facing a crisis. Hamas had just led an attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, the deadliest day in the country's history. Many blamed Netanyahu and thought his government wouldn't last. But it has. While Netanyahu has led Israel at war across the Middle East, how has he pulled it off? We have NPR's Daniel Estrin on the line from Tel Aviv. Hey, Daniel.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: So Daniel, if you could, just take us back to the beginning of the war. How much pressure was Netanyahu facing to step down?
ESTRIN: He was facing a ton of pressure. I remember the night of October 7, the attack, I met a father in a hospital. He was looking for his missing daughter. Turned out - later, we learned she had been killed. And that night, he was saying Netanyahu's government was to blame. He said Netanyahu's government had weakened Israel because, in the months before, there were these massive street protests against Netanyahu's plan to weaken the judiciary, and there were reservist soldiers who were even saying they'd refuse to serve.
And then after October 7, a poll found that about 76% of Israelis wanted Netanyahu to resign. And at that time, I remember speaking to analysts in the first months of the war who said there was no way Netanyahu's government could hold on. But here we are.
SUMMERS: Here we are, indeed. So, Daniel, tell us, how has Netanyahu survived?
ESTRIN: He's deflected blame, and he's put all the focus on Hamas, and he has directed all the focus away from him. He was confronted at a press conference in the first weeks of the war. And he was asked, why aren't you resigning? And this is what he said.
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PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: The only thing that I intend to have resign is Hamas. We're going to resign them to the dustbin of history.
ESTRIN: Now, the war that he is waging in Gaza has, of course, led to massive destruction, the killing of more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. It has drawn worldwide condemnation. The International Criminal Court has an arrest warrant out for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza. But in Israel, first of all, the ICC is seen as anti-Israeli by many, so those arrest warrants are not weakening him at home.
And on the battlefield, Netanyahu has a lot of successes he is presenting to the Israeli public. Hamas has been severely degraded. Hezbollah in Lebanon has been beaten back. The leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah have been killed. Israel's moves have, in part, led to the fall of the Syrian regime. Just the other day, Israel bombed the Houthis in Yemen. Israel has also bombed its archenemy Iran in this war. So the narrative Netanyahu is presenting to Israel is, he's led a historic comeback since the weak days of October 7 and the aftermath.
SUMMERS: And all of those military moves that you've just described - how are those playing out for Netanyahu's popularity in Israel?
ESTRIN: They've helped him but only somewhat. He has regained all the support that he lost at the beginning of the war, but it's just brought him back to where he had been, which was not very popular. He only has about 30- or 40% support among the Israeli public today. Throughout the year, many Israelis have protested him in the streets. They have blamed him for blocking a deal to free the Israeli hostage in Gaza. They've blamed him for, they say, worrying more about his own political survival than freeing the hostages because his far-right political partners and government have threatened to quit if he made a deal with Hamas. Despite all these protests in the streets, Netanyahu has simply dug in, and he is not swayed by them.
We have been speaking with an Israeli American pollster, Dahlia Scheindlin, who has made this fascinating comparison to the last time Israel faced a surprising, devastating attack. It was the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago. And after the war, the prime minister, Golda Meir, resigned.
DAHLIA SCHEINDLIN: Mass numbers of people went out, demonstrated, and she felt a sense of responsibility and resigned. Netanyahu does not share that sense of responsibility or accountability.
SUMMERS: And Daniel, Netanyahu is also standing trial on corruption charges this month. Doesn't that also harm his popularity?
ESTRIN: It actually doesn't. His corruption trial is just another thing that Netanyahu is using to help shape his image right now. He has been called to the stand to testify, and he's kind of made a show out of it. The trial was even delayed a day because he went to go visit Israeli troops in Syria. So he's sending a message from the courtroom that these charges - the corruption charges he's facing - are frivolous. I, Netanyahu, am meanwhile dealing what - with what really matters. I'm at the forefront of history in the Middle East.
SUMMERS: NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Daniel, thanks.
ESTRIN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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