French newspaper Le Figaro reported that Israel has undergone profound transformations and successive crises over the past four years under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned to power in 2022 at the head of a governing coalition comprising his Likud party, two ultra-Orthodox parties, and two far-right parties.
اضافة اعلان
Despite the political and security turmoil that has shaken the country, the coalition has managed to survive.
Just days before Tuesday's parliamentary elections, one question looms large in Israel: Will another war with Iran break out? Indeed, many residents of the country, Israelis and Palestinians alike, are asking with growing exhaustion when the conflict might erupt again. Will it happen tonight? Tomorrow? Or after the US midterm elections in early November?
When Israelis last went to the polls four years ago, such a scenario would have seemed highly unlikely. Today, however, after four rounds of warfare between Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran, the prospect has become almost familiar.
Israel today is no longer the country it was in 2022, when Benjamin Netanyahu made a powerful political comeback, leading a coalition dominated by Likud and supported by two ultra-Orthodox parties and two parties representing the far right of Israeli politics. That alliance has proved sufficiently resilient to withstand every storm.
Over the past four years, Israel has experienced a succession of crises, each of which could independently be considered a major upheaval: an institutional crisis, a security crisis, and an identity crisis.
None has been resolved. Instead, these crises have become increasingly intertwined, creating multiple tensions that will play a decisive role in shaping Israeli voters' choices on Tuesday.
The war has not ended anywhere. In the West Bank, the Israeli military launched a large-scale operation on Saturday following an armed attack near Hebron that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others. The two Palestinian attackers were also killed.
On Thursday, four people were killed by Israeli gunfire in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces also remain deployed in southern Lebanon, where they continue carrying out strikes against Hezbollah. Reports further indicated that Israeli aircraft approached the Iranian border on two occasions this week.
According to Le Figaro, distrust of institutions has become deeply entrenched. Among both Netanyahu's opponents and supporters, this distrust is fueled by the prime minister's refusal to establish a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding the October 7 attack.
Such investigations have traditionally been conducted in Israel, including after the October 1973 War, the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon, and the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
Without the findings of an official investigation, speculation and accusations have flourished.
Netanyahu's opponents hold him responsible for allowing Qatar to finance Hamas in an effort to weaken Fatah, the Palestinian political movement that previously governed the Gaza Strip.
His supporters, meanwhile, blame what they describe as the "deep state," intelligence agencies, the military, and successive chiefs of staff for allowing the events to unfold.
As long as the truth remains unknown, the credibility of Israel's institutions will continue to suffer.
For Israelis, this represents perhaps the most bitter lesson of the October 7 attack. The State of Israel, established after World War II, was founded on the promise of providing a safe haven for Jews from around the world, ensuring that they would never again face another Holocaust.
Yet on October 7, 2023, Israel experienced what has been described as the deadliest massacre of Jews since World War II. For Israelis, this event called into question the fundamental social contract between the people and the Israeli state.
Despite their differences, most Israelis have drawn a similar conclusion from October 7: peace with the Palestinians is unattainable, and the two-state solution has become almost unthinkable.
Only one candidate currently advocates this solution: left-wing politician Yair Golan, who is projected to win between nine and ten seats in the next 120-member Knesset.
For Golan, the two-state solution is no longer an idealistic vision of peace, as it was during the Oslo peace process. Instead, it has become a necessity, or the least undesirable option.
In his view, allowing Israelis and Palestinians to live separately, each within their own political entity, is the only viable path toward ensuring Israel's security.
Aware of how difficult this proposal is for many Israelis to accept, Benjamin Netanyahu has made opposition to it a central theme of his election campaign.
His slogan, "The Right or Palestine," captures the essence of that campaign.
The country is divided into two opposing camps that appear incapable of reconciliation, even temporarily, except when confronted by a common external threat.
This division is the result of a series of events that have unfolded at a rapid pace since Netanyahu returned to power.
In January 2023, his justice minister announced a judicial reform plan aimed at limiting the independence and powers of Israel's Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court serves as the primary institutional check on government authority in a political system that lacks a written constitution and operates with a unicameral parliament.
Opponents of the proposed reforms argued that the very future of Israeli democracy was at stake, particularly since the issue had not been raised during the election campaign.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets to protest the plan.
Over the following months, the demonstrations grew so large that Netanyahu, who faces trial on charges of corruption, fraud, and breach of trust, was forced to temporarily suspend the initiative without abandoning it entirely.
Netanyahu understood that he could rely on the support of the majority of voters who had brought his coalition to power, many of whom viewed the judicial reform proposal as a reflection of their political beliefs.
The controversy exposed a profound divide between progressive and secular Israelis, who defend the rule of law and liberal democracy, and conservative and religious Israelis, who favor giving state institutions a stronger religious character.
The latter also seek to reduce the authority of judges, whom they accuse of obstructing the work of elected lawmakers and the executive branch.
Between these two camps, meaningful dialogue appears almost impossible.
Demographic changes are also increasingly favoring the conservative camp.
