As has been the case in recent decades, Israelis will probably not get a chance to see a debate between the top two candidates for prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett, ahead of this year’s election.

If they were to go head-to-head, though, it would be illuminating to hear each man answer this question: What do you propose for the future of the West Bank, and for Israeli-Palestinian relations more broadly?

How would they respond? Surprisingly, and in contrast to previous votes, it’s hard to say. Israel is approaching what many believe to be one of its most pivotal elections ever. But one issue that has occupied and bedeviled the country’s politics for decades barely seems to register.

It’s clear that this election will be about October 7, 2023. It’s the first election since the Hamas-led onslaught that devastated Israel and precipitated a change in the country and across the Middle East. The massacre and its legacy will be at the center of the campaign.

Bennett and others in the anti-Netanyahu camp — Yair Lapid, Gadi Eisenkot, Yair Golan — will continue trying to indelibly link the premier with the catastrophe and blame him for it. Netanyahu will continue trying to deflect blame and highlight Israel’s subsequent achievements in Gaza and in fighting other regional adversaries like Hezbollah and Iran.

Those issues are important — and they are also backward-looking. Other questions that are more squarely focused on the future will also take up airtime, such as whether and how to draft Haredi men into the military, and the ongoing debate over the Netanyahu government’s effort to weaken the judiciary.

There’s another half-dozen burning topics that are sure to dominate political messaging in the coming months — including Qatargate and the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into October 7 — many of which come down to a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership.

The so-called “Palestinian question” isn’t one of them.

The future of Gaza will continue to be at the heart of Israeli politics for some time and, obviously, what happens there will determine the fates of a large share of Palestinians. But US President Donald Trump’s administration has indicated that he’s the one........

© The Times of Israel