Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambled to save his political career in the chaotic days following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault, as fears spread within his own party that Likud lawmakers were preparing to replace him, according to a new report in Haaretz.

Citing multiple sources inside the Prime Minister’s Office, the report describes Netanyahu’s urgent internal campaign to secure his position — one that included quickly assembling a wartime unity government and personally lobbying ministers not to resign.

“The fear was that the government was about to be replaced in short order — maybe a week,” one official told Haaretz. “They would pick a new prime minister to manage the war. That process didn’t happen only because they couldn’t agree on Netanyahu’s replacement — and because [Benny] Gantz wasn’t on board.”

In the hours after Hamas gunmen breached Israel’s southern border, Netanyahu’s political allies reportedly began to panic. Some Likud figures privately discussed a “constructive vote of no confidence” — a parliamentary maneuver to oust the government and immediately approve a new one in its place.

A senior opposition source told Haaretz that even some within Likud were ready to move on. “The MKs we spoke to thought it was over,” the source said. “But it wasn’t. That effort just blew up. They got half a year of quiet, and everything got normalized.”

Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a Netanyahu confidant, reached out to both National Unity leader Benny Gantz and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid early on October 7 — without informing Netanyahu — to invite them into an emergency unity government.

Gantz immediately accepted. Once Netanyahu learned of the outreach that afternoon, he moved quickly to formalize the arrangement. The unity government was established on October 11.

The deal bought Netanyahu what aides described as “breathing room.”

Behind closed doors, Netanyahu worked to shore up loyalty inside his cabinet. He held small, sometimes one-on-one meetings with ministers to dissuade them from quitting — giving the impression they were integral to military decision-making even when their influence was limited.

“He would call them to the room, show them a map of the Middle East on the wall, and say, ‘Look, our forces are here and here, the terrorists are there,’” one attendee recalled. “Then at the end — ‘How can you talk about resigning now and toppling the government?’”

Those efforts succeeded. Netanyahu held his coalition together long enough to stabilize the government and project an image of control as Israel entered a prolonged war.

The emergency government lasted until June 2024, when Gantz resigned — accusing Netanyahu of political paralysis and mishandling of the war. But by then, the prime minister had regained his footing.

Within weeks, Netanyahu sought to deepen divisions between opposition parties and frame calls for his removal as unpatriotic during wartime. Opposition leaders, wary of being seen as undermining national unity, largely refrained from public confrontation.

“On the one hand, soldiers were being killed, and we couldn’t create more division,” said a Yesh Atid source. “On the other hand, every day that these people are in power is bloodshed in vain.”

A Likud insider described the opposition’s restraint as a political gift. “They didn’t miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” the source said. “If the roles were reversed, Bibi would have torn them apart.”

Though Netanyahu’s approval ratings cratered in the aftermath of the October 7 failures, his position improved steadily through the first half of 2024. By May, polls showed him overtaking Gantz as the public’s preferred prime minister. In August, Likud again emerged as the largest party in hypothetical election scenarios.

Still, most surveys now suggest Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc may not have the numbers to form a new government on its own — but it retains enough strength to block any alternative coalition.

Israel’s next general election is set for October 2026, though insiders say the timing could shift if the coalition fractures or Netanyahu decides to call an early vote.

Until then, the man many expected to fall in the days after October 7 appears, once again, to have turned crisis into survival.

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