Crash or Provocation: What Netanyahu’s Final Months Will Mean for Israel and the World

The Israeli elections have become a race to the bottom for the Netanyahu government, which risks provoking conflict and the country’s isolation. Türkiye, meanwhile, is proposing a peace alliance to resolve the Palestinian issue.

Israel is frozen in anxious anticipation of the upcoming elections

What was supposed to be a routine election cycle has turned into an existential thriller. These elections, which must legally be held no later than October 27, are not being called a celebration of democracy. Rather, this is a race for survival: voters hope to get rid of “the most failed government in history,” but fear that the outgoing coalition will manage to inflict mortal wounds on the system itself.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Likud party, and his far-right allies are, according to every poll, doomed. They will not form the next government. But that, as political scientists warn, is precisely what makes them most dangerous. Surrounded by three corruption indictments, the political heavyweight who has ruled longer than anyone in the country’s history has become a cornered animal. The question is no longer just whether he will leave, but what he will break on his way out.

A Government Living on Borrowed Time and the Doomed Leader Syndrome

The atmosphere in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem resembles the calm before a storm. The Knesset is slowly but surely advancing a bill for its own dissolution, but every day of delay plays into the current cabinet’s hands. Netanyahu, whom local commentators call a master of political jiu-jitsu, is no longer seeking popularity. He is seeking immunity.

The main motivation for Netanyahu, according to many observers, is not the security of the northern border or the reconstruction of Gaza, but simple courtroom survival. Just recently, the Jerusalem District Court was forced to cancel hearings in the prime minister’s case. The........

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