From Naftali Bennett's point of view, the past week and a half must be among the most unpleasant days since he took office as Israeli Prime Minister almost a year ago.

It began with the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Bennett himself early on propagated the narrative concocted by the Israeli army: that the Palestinian-US Al Jazeera correspondent was "probably" shot by an armed Palestinian while covering Israeli military action in Jenin.

Christian Meier

Political correspondent for the Middle East and Northeast Africa.

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It now seems far more likely that the shot that hit 51-year-old Abu Akleh, wearing a body armor and helmet, in the head was fired by an Israeli soldier.

The army has now even identified the possible murder weapon.

There are always civilian deaths in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, and there are almost never any serious consequences for the soldiers involved.

However, the death of Abu Akleh, one of the most well-known journalists in the Arab world, triggered a wave of outrage.

Two days later, videos circulated around the world showing Israeli police officers beating participants in the funeral procession in Jerusalem.

Even the American President Joe Biden spoke out.

The Israeli media widely discussed how this PR debacle could have happened from an Israeli point of view.

Few drew the obvious conclusion that the occupation itself could be the problem; instead, individual journalists lamented the alleged unfair treatment of Israel by the world public.

Netanyahu remains the most popular politician in the country

However, the dominant issue in the country is the ongoing government crisis.

The creaking of the coalition building, which Bennett and Yair Lapid, the foreign minister and “alternating prime minister”, built a year ago, is becoming more and more audible.

That's because the house was built crooked from the start and poorly insulated: the builders, eight parties from the far left to the far right, had only come together with the aim of preventing another reign of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ideologically, some of them are deadly enemies of each other, and this becomes more and more evident as time goes by.

Bennett himself belongs to the right, his party is also called like this: Jamina - "to the right".

He used to speak primarily for the settlers.

Since his election as prime minister, however, the 50-year-old has endeavored to appear statesmanlike and balanced, thus conveying a different image of Israel than was the case under the increasingly erratic Netanyahu, who was burdened with corruption charges.

Especially when it comes to Israel's foreign relations, he and Lapid are doing pretty well, despite Israel's back-and-forth over the war in Ukraine.

Nevertheless, "Bibi" Netanyahu is still the most popular politician in the country, and his Likud would win by far the most seats in an election.

Bennett, on the other hand, whose party garnered just 6.2 percent of the vote in last year's election, can't even be sure that he'll move back into the Knesset.

According to polls, much of his electorate is deeply disappointed that the hard-right politician has formed a coalition with left-wing parties (which he had previously rejected).

In addition to criticism and abuse, there have even been death threats against Bennett and his family.