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#BREAKING:
PM Netanyahuโs office announces: per PM Netanyahuโs directive, the IDF has struck Hezbollah command headquarters in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut, in response to Hezbollah fire toward Israeli territory.
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I consider Eisenkot's rise in the opposition bloc a terrible development, an ominous testament to Israeli voters' immaturity.
Israel faces two long-term guaranteed challenges: the Israel-Palestinian conflict and Haredi integration. Iran is a significant challenge, but it's not guaranteed; the Iranian regime might fall in 5, 10 or 15 years, and if Israel muddles through until then, the problem might just sort itself out. But the I/P conflict and Haredi demographics won't go anywhere.
Eisenkot is a unique character in Israeli politics. There are very few people as closely associated with the much-derided "kontseptsiya" that collapsed on 7/10/23 as Eisenkot: he was Chief of Staff between 2015 and 2019, the final years of the "Pax Netanyahu" era. He presided over the hollowing out of the ground forces, and he was a true believer of the "smart and small army" and the illusion that the era of big wars was over.
But if this is not enough, Eisenkot is *also* more or less openly apathetic to the challenge of Haredi integration. He basically admitted that he would sit with them in the same coalition if that's ony way to oust Netanyahu. He doesn't really care about implementing any significant change to the existing (intolerable) status quo.
On a personal level, the upcoming election presents me with a painful choice. I consider the question of Haredi integration a burning, existential issue, and I know that if it's up to him, Netanyahu won't do anything about it. At the same time, I'm even more wary of trusting the country on a center-left coalition 2.5 years before a Democrat might retake the White House. In 2029, Israel's prime minister must be someone who will resist pressure to "revive the diplomatic process", and eventually agree to additional territorial concessions, at any cost. Someone who won't even blink at UNSC resolutions.
In light of the danger of a Democratic POTUS who smells blood and sees a center-left government as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bully Israel into letting a Palestinian state come into existence, I consider another right-Haredi coalition the lesser evil. But I still understand voters who weigh their priorities differently and want the Haredi parties out of power at any cost. I hear where they are coming from.
But the fact that a third of the country wants someone to be the prime minister who is not only one of the chief architects of the discredited pre-Oct-7 security doctrine, but is also just as terrible about Haredi integration as Netanyahu, is a dark sign that we learned nothing from the past three years.