What happens if Netanyahu loses the election? | The Economist

No one can ever predict. an Israeli election, even the day of. But it's coming. maybe in October. Is this one of those elections. where as long as. Netanyahu loses. in that moment. then with one bound. Israel is free, global standing transformed? No, Israel's challenges, Israel's security challenges, its diplomatic challenges. will all remain. on the day. after Netanyahu, assuming. there is a day after Netanyahu. And also a Prime Minister Eisenkot. or a Prime Minister Bennett. will have to make decisions. which will be unpopular.

around the world. There's no question about it. There's a kind of fantasy, I think, in the West to think. that it's all Netanyahu. Just get rid of Netanyahu. everything will change. That's just not true. It's not true. He is representing. some level of public opinion. in what, I agree, is. a very divided country, Israel. But he stands for something. and it isn't just Netanyahu. It's more than that. So if he wins again, what happens to policy? Does it get even more hardline? Do we see even more hardline. people in the coalition? Well, I don't think. there are more hard liners. in Israel that Netanyahu. can bring in.

He's broken all the walls. and brought in all the. previously unmentionables. into his current coalition. But we will see. a doubling-down on these policies. and, if that is the case, and if Netanyahu does win. and is re-elected. with his current coalition, then that can only. mean further isolation for Israel. Is Israel’s future standing. inseparable from the future. of the Palestinian people? Or have we just decided that. it's a busy world, we don't have the width. to think about the Palestinians? I think it is inseparable.

I thought actually. from October 7th onwards, that it showed. terrible, terrible massacre event. that it was. it showed you actually. that there has to be. some kind of agreement here. And I go back to the old insight. that either. Israel absorbs. all the Palestinians. and accepts them as full citizens, in which case its identity. as a Jewish state. is really under threat, or it absorbs them, rules over them,

in which case it becomes. an apartheid state, or it finds a settlement. And there is no other way. And I think. I agree with you that the. fickleness of the world. of being obsessed by Gaza. and then forgetting about. it is pretty shocking. But the energy. for the Palestinian issues. I don't think is going to. come from Gaza. I think it's going to come. from the West Bank. if Netanyahu is re-elected, because the settler movement. there is really strong. And there's. movement in that.