Israel’s election may end the Netanyahu era but not the ‘forever wars’

AI Summary

Israel's upcoming election may signal the end of Benjamin Netanyahu's long tenure, amidst rising political tensions and challenges to his leadership following security crises. The campaign highlights ongoing conflicts and the political landscape's impact on national security.

Israel’s next election campaign is well under way, with political defections, fractious coalition-building and naked appeals to ethnic exclusion marking its opening salvoes as a crowded field of challengers queues up to try Benjamin Netanyahu for the security catastrophe of October 7, 2023 and the wars that followed. The vote, constitutionally set for this October, is shaping up as a referendum on the prime minister’s central claim to power: that only he can keep Israel safe. But after two and a...