Warnings from Israeli officials: Civil War No Longer Unthinkable

By Elijah J. Magnier

Fissures within Israel’s political and security establishment are deepening as mounting internal pressures challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the Gaza war and his increasingly authoritarian grip on power – a grip he has maintained at all costs to ensure his political survival.

In the past, Netanyahu has dismissed the possibility of civil war, famously declaring in March 2023, during a temporary halt to his judicial reform, that ‘there can be no civil war’. But the political landscape has changed dramatically since then. What was once unthinkable is now part of mainstream discourse, with senior officials and respected figures warning of a society on the verge of internal collapse.

The use of “civil war” in Israeli political vocabulary is not entirely new. It resurfaced in the 1990s when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords, committing to the creation of a Palestinian state – albeit one far smaller than the UN-recognised 1967 borders. At the time, the right-wing opposition mobilised fiercely against the agreement, branding Rabin a traitor and creating an atmosphere so toxic that it culminated in his assassination in 1995.

Today, the same rhetoric of betrayal and division has returned, now directed at those calling for a ceasefire or negotiations. But the stakes are even higher. Unlike the Oslo period, when the debate was about the future of peace, the current crisis is about the future of Israeli ‘democracy’, institutional integrity and social cohesion. And at the centre of it all is Netanyahu – accused by critics of choosing war over unity, division over consensus, and personal power over national interest.

But in March 2025, with Israeli society more polarised than at any time in recent memory, Netanyahu has conspicuously avoided offering assurances of ‘no civil war’. His silence contrasts sharply with the growing chorus of warnings from senior political and legal figures, suggesting a marked shift in the national discourse. Meanwhile, nothing seems to be stopping Netanyahu from insisting on continuing the war against Hamas.