Netanyahu Picks Politics Over Peace

Benjamin Netanyahu was handed an exit from Gaza, but he chose an election instead, ensuring his stay in power outlasts both war and peace in Gaza.

Silence, Then Surrender to the Right

He found out on August 9. At a cabinet meeting, under sustained pressure from far-right partners who oppose any Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Netanyahu reversed course: “I want to be precise here: Israel rejects the 15-point document,” he told ministers, adding that forces would “not withdraw at all until Hamas is genuinely disarmed”. The distance between those two moments — eight days of studied ambiguity followed by an abrupt, hard-edged rejection — is the clearest evidence available that this decision was engineered for a domestic audience, not dictated by strategic necessity.

Israel is heading to the polls on October 27, its first election since the October 7, 2023, attack reshaped the country’s politics, and Netanyahu is defending a coalition that current polling suggests may not win the majority. Netanyahu’s calculation is to persuade wavering right-wing voters that he remains the only committed Israeli leader who will stop Hamas, not only a permanent basis but also on terms set by Israel only. Rejecting a Trump-backed peace framework, however historic Trump himself called it, serves that narrative far better than signing it would. Taking the stand against the US and Trump, Israel’s strongest ally, is something that Netanyahu can sell to his domestic audiences and........

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