Netanyahu Flip on Migrants Shows Influence of Hard-Line Allies Photo Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday canceled a deal with the United Nations on African migrants, a day after he had announced it. Credit Ronen Zvulun/Reuters JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed down under pressure before, but rarely in such a spectacular fashion as he did on Tuesday when he reneged on a deal with the United Nations, just one day after he announced it, to resettle thousands of African asylum seekers in Western countries.
Defending the abrupt reversal, he said he was responding to an outcry from members of his own conservative Likud party as well as partners in his governing coalition who routinely refer to the migrants as “infiltrators” and want all of them expelled. But the capitulation dented Mr. Netanyahu’s image as a master political player who has managed to outlast almost any other Israeli leader.
“This sort of zigzagging is not at all unusual,” said Gadi Wolfsfeld, ..