October as a Weapon |
There are moments when an election is no longer simply an election. It becomes an operation performed on public memory.
Benjamin Netanyahu now appears to be entering precisely such a moment. His problem is not only that his old strategic narrative has weakened. His problem is that the catastrophe of October 7 still stands before him as an event that has not been politically neutralized.
For years, Netanyahu mastered the art of reclassification. Failure could be renamed prudence. Paralysis could be called restraint. Corruption could be framed as persecution. Dependency on extremists could be sold as loyalty to the national camp. Even disaster, under sufficient rhetorical pressure, could be folded into the mythology of the indispensable leader.
But October 7 is harder to absorb. It is not a scandal. It is not a tactical embarrassment. It is not another item in the endless machinery of coalition bargaining. It is a wound in chronological form.
That is why the date of the coming election matters so much.
Netanyahu had hoped to approach the polls as the architect of a transformed Middle East: Iran weakened beyond recovery, Israel elevated as a regional power, diplomacy and force fused into one grand image of historic leadership. In such a scenario, October 7 would not disappear, but it could be displaced. It could be made to look like the terrible prelude to a........