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Leads from Opposition to Israel they have used the prestigious Herzliya meeting in the country to set their policy agenda, but experts and researchers have noted that their views on foreign policy are slightly different from those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is ruling the coalition.
None of the three opposition figures – former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, all former prime ministers – gave attendees at Reichman University on Wednesday strong criticism of Israel’s recent wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
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Instead, he chose to criticize Netanyahu for the way the campaign was conducted and what he is doing as a submission to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who seems to have prevented Israel from carrying out its wars in Lebanon and Iran more forcefully.
Speaking at the conference, Bennett – who will run alongside Lapid in the upcoming elections – he moderated his criticism of the Israeli government in his insistence that Israel will fight its battles well: “After a thousand days of war, the truth must be told: Hamas is starting again in the south, Hezbollah is growing stronger, attacking our soldiers and threatening our citizens, and the head of the octopus, the government of Tehran, is still there,” he said.
Eisenkot, who polls show is one of the favorites to replace Netanyahu Elections are being called later this yearhe also criticized Netanyahu’s tactics, accusing him of exaggerating the nuclear threat posed by Iran, but continuing to support Netanyahu’s war on Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
Arguments from critics, such as Lapid, that Israel has never been isolated or considered extremist and unstable by foreign leaders are irrelevant. Leaders from around the world have been increasingly vocal in their criticism of Israel, as many have faced their most critical ally, the US, as departing from their tradition.
However, instead of reducing the dialogue that he relies on to establish his position, Mr. Netanyahu continues to repeat the speeches of other members of his government, such as the Minister of National Defense Itamar Ben-Gvir or the Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, which many Israeli critics took as a difference.
Speaking on Israel’s Channel 14 on Thursday, Netanyahu told viewers: “It will never end,” he said, looking into the camera. Listen to me: It will never end. Do you want to live? Do you want to live in the Middle East, and, more importantly, in the world? Hold on. And we are very strong.”
Style not substance
Beyond the differences between Israel’s main opposition and Netanyahu, the situation remains the same, parliamentarian Aida Touma-Sliman of the left-wing Hadash Party told Al Jazeera.
Critics “really believe what they’re saying.” “Politicians like Eisenkot, Lapid and Bennett reflect the Israeli culture,” he said.
Disagreement with Netanyahu’s government was limited to domestic issues, while on issues such as genocide and the repeated attacks on Iran and Lebanon, there was much consensus. “They all accept the campaign that Netanyahu launched; they only criticize him for his actions, and for making Israel a proxy for the US, as if it wasn’t always like that,” he said.
The attacks on Iran and Lebanon have received widespread support from the Israeli public, with the most recent investigation being in Gaza, where Israel’s war has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians. deliberately targeted Children according to the UN study, and led to hunger, often only have the ability to protect themselves.
Much of this is due to the growth of hard-line and inflexible views that erupted after the attack led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which no Israeli politician wants to be seen as opposing, and perhaps due to the growth of racist and right-wing views that have occupied a large part of the Israeli population for decades, Yehouda told Al Jarbani-Israel.
Eisenkot, Lapid and Bennett “exactly reflect the state of Israel,” he said. “The opposition supported the pointless war with Iran, and criticized Netanyahu for failing to consider Trump’s instability. He also supported the war in Lebanon, without pushing for a political agreement with the Lebanese government,” he said.
More important, Shenhav-Shahrabani said, was the refusal of many of the opposition to accept lawmakers who represent Palestinian citizens of Israel into their ranks. “Like the government should be Jewish,” he said. “This is not surprising, because all three also oppose the rights of the Palestinian people. So, in short: the same woman, different dress.”
October 7 shapes all politics
Few in Israel doubt that the aftermath of the attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,139 people and displaced nearly 250 people, continues to shape Israeli politics. Through the constant review of the media and the legal division of the events of the day, and what Israeli experts have described to Al Jazeera as its permanent connection in the minds of many people to the Nazis, where Nazi Germany killed about six million Jews, the attack continues to define the political views of many Israeli leaders, regardless of their party.
And yet, argued Nimrod Goren, president and founder of Mitvim – The Israel Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, Eisenkot, Bennett and Lapid still offer a different approach to politics that Netanyahu and his friends do.
While many Israelis have grown more conservative since October 7, being right-wing and supporting Netanyahu have become two different things, Goren explained. Some figures on the right offered an alternative to the politics of Netanyahu and his coalition.
However, even if this were true, the October 7 attacks have profoundly changed Israeli politics, changing many of the assumptions on which the opposition had previously built its platform.
“The concept of security has changed,” Goren said. “October 7 was the most terrible day that Israel has faced since its establishment. Everyone lost something that day. Not lives and property but the sense of security and the only hope of having a peaceful partner on the other side,” he said about how Israel’s attitude towards the Palestinian people – whose land it occupied illegally since 1967 – was changed by the events of that day.
“It led Israel under Netanyahu to rely more on military power,” he said, referring to events in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, which critics now want to offer an alternative.
“October 7 was a huge failure that should not be repeated,” he said. “And for many in Israel, that means being persistent in the war, not ignoring the threats posed by the adversaries in the region.”
“It will be up to the current opposition – if they win the upcoming elections – to organize the military and negotiations, and prioritize dialogue, cooperation and peace building,” he added.
