It is a year since Israel escalated genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and now it faces an internal fight that might prove no less disastrous than the kind it promotes externally: One against Gaza and a second against Lebanon. The deeper threat comes, however from within a divided and polarized society led by a government that thrives on conflict.

For so long, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has wanted to present himself as an ultra-hardliner. He is pushing this country toward chaos. Even when Jewish Israelis largely share similar views on most national issues, Netanyahu’s leadership is accentuating fissures at a moment when unity is needed. The war in Gaza has pulled apart a society at odds with itself, fratricidal hate and political fundamentalism having done much to undermine the survival options of Israel itself.

The greater menace to Israel’s future does not lie in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon but in the increasingly bifurcating inside of Israeli society. Netanyahu’s government, backed by a hard-right-wing group, has opened fissures so deep that it has broken points of cracking. Israelis are today left to ask the existential question: Is the greater threat outside or is it the internal collapse of a state built on contradictions and occupied land?

These divisions can then be especially visible in the fractured political landscape. The rift between the government and its people is growing increasingly wider, as Israelis are not letting go of their discontent with Netanyahu’s unwillingness to budge. The extremity-infused policies of the government have only served to make the rifts of Jewish versus Arab, secular versus religious, and the broader rifts of a divided society grow further apart.

Increasingly, social media and traditional outlets have pointed to the growing gap between Israeli citizens and their government, and compulsive topics Netanyahu has refused to engage with, like the return of hostages, compulsory conscription, and judicial reform, have fed the fire. The notion of a “zero-sum war” in which there is nothing else but Israel-the-Jewish-state versus a democratic state for all its citizens – one-fifth who just so happen to be Arab Israelis-has never stopped to polarize this country as it has not before.

Over half of Israelis are now calling for Netanyahu, who is the biggest liability, to resign. Many Israelis had lost faith in the government and turned instead to depend on the Israeli army. But Netanyahu’s government has reframed the issue, letting the war speak for itself, depicting it not as a result of years of mismanagement, neglect, or criminal oversight, but as part of an existential struggle in a broader sense. He’s even hinted that the war Israel has been fighting the last year truly since 1948-the “Resurrection War.”

But such spin as to dress the conflict in heroic struggle can’t hide the hard ground realities. No easy victories await Israel here death, destruction, and unanswered questions. The war has left the country more divided than ever before, and Netanyahu’s government sits at the very center of the chaos. His insistence on pressing ahead with a war most Israelis now view as futile raises questions about the ever-deepening disconnect between the Israeli electorate and its leadership.

As the war between Israel and Gaza continues for months, so also does the fracture in Israeli society. Possibly the greatest threat is no longer the Palestinians of Gaza and Hezbollah of Lebanon but the social disintegration of an Israeli society torn asunder. Netanyahu’s extreme position and refusal to budge forward is taking the country to the edge.

The war of the soul of the nation turns into a terrible truth for Israelis today – the country stands on the edge of collapse, and only the hands of time can tell if it survives or if internal strife destroys it.

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