Northern Israel’s Fury Puts Netanyahu’s Political Base at Risk

by | May 7, 2026 | News

flying rocket during daytime

For residents of northern Israel, the ceasefire with Hezbollah announced in mid-April feels less like a victory than a betrayal. Despite Netanyahu’s insistence that the terror group’s capabilities were severely degraded, Hezbollah drones continue killing IDF soldiers and forcing civilians back into shelters.

The north has historically been Netanyahu’s most reliable stronghold. In the 2022 elections, Likud captured nearly 50 percent of the vote in Kiryat Shmona and over 42 percent in Afula. But the war has tested that loyalty severely.

A mid-April poll found 48 percent of northern residents unhappy with the ceasefire, with 79 percent supporting continued fighting even at the cost of friction with Washington. A separate nationwide survey found 66 percent of Israelis dissatisfied with Netanyahu’s management of the campaigns in Iran and Lebanon — including 30 percent of his own coalition voters.

Kiryat Shmona’s mayor, a Likud member, accused the government of trading away the north’s security. “We elected our government full-on right wing for full-on security,” he told national radio. “In practice, we see that our security is up for a negotiation that isn’t even ours.”

Analyst Dahlia Scheindlin cautioned it is too early to predict electoral consequences, but noted the north believes more strongly than anywhere else that the only solution is continued military pressure. Researcher Nimrod Nir was blunter: “This is the first time we see levels of pessimism like those after October 7. People have the sentiment that this war is a failure.”

With Knesset elections scheduled for October, the political window to change that narrative is closing fast.

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