Ha'aretz - Saturday December 30
...Maj. Gen. (res.) Guy Zur said at the Tel Aviv protest … "Netanyahu and his people are unethical, have no authority or capability, and even now during the war they continue to fuel conflict with their 'poison machine.'"
...outside the premier's private residence in the northern city of Caesarea … protesters held signs with a bloody handprint and the word "Guilty." … According to the protesters, they were forbidden by the police to erect a stage for the Caesarea demonstration, and a protester who attempted [it] was arrested…. [also] two protesters … for shouting with megaphones, which were confiscated by police… One of the arrested protesters is Israel Air Force Brig. Gen. {ret.) Amir Haskel, who has been active in anti-Netanyahu protests for years….
...Eyal Yafeh, a Yom Kippur War veteran, said: "We are the Yom Kippur fighters who faced the blunder of 1973, and we will fight for our country to recover from the blunder of 2023."…
<big><big>TOI: Demonstrators express strong positions against ruling coalition and handling of war against Hamas, as some call for new elections despite lack of enthusiasm for other candidates</big></big> No paywall:
Anti-government demonstrations of hundreds of thousands had been a weekly fixture in the months preceding October 7. After the Hamas attack, many activist groups shifted into aid and civil defense activities, but others continued, notably one drawing hundreds in Jerusalem in early November.
...In one of the first major, explicitly anti-government protests since [October 7] demonstrators for “elections now” flocked to the central Tel Aviv square [with] banners highly antagonistic toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his hardline coalition...
“The cry of mothers: Get our soldiers out of Gaza now,” read one banner ... another called for “A diplomatic agreement.” [Yet another] “Israel will not survive if we don’t bring him down.”… [another] “You bring us death and say ‘that’s life,’” referencing a remark made by Netanyahu last month after an armed civilian who stopped a deadly terror attack in Jerusalem was mistakenly shot dead by a soldier...
...[Many] brought Israeli flags from the anti-judicial overhaul movement of the pre-October 7 era...
...Down the road [at the renamed Hostages’ Square] families and their supporters gathered for an 11th straight week …
...[One protester said she was there] out of a profound sense of “despair and fear” [for] the ongoing deaths of Israelis soldiers and Palestinian civilians in Gaza. “People on both sides are dying for no purpose … You can’t change paradigms with war. Children dying is not a policy..,”
...Speaking at a press briefing Saturday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [alluded to] a new agreement for the release of the remaining hostages but also stressed that he doesn’t “want to raise exaggerated expectations.”
“Hamas has issued all kinds of ultimatums that we’ve not accepted,” he said, noting that if a viable deal is possible, “it will be carried out.” Right now, he added carefully, “We see a possibility, maybe, for movement.”✱
Saturday’s demonstrations took place also in Karkur and other locales around Israel.
✱ Note: that last link is to my post of articles on talks principally between Egypt, Hamas, and Jordan regarding a specific program for a permanent ceasefire and transition to the-day-after made last week by Egypt to Hamas. The TOI article did not clarify whether this is, in fact, the “possibility for movement” hinted at by BN, but there doesn’t seem to be anything else of that nature going on...