As has become the norm, many politicians and leaders who acknowledge Israel’s violations of international law and its role as an obstacle to achieving genuine peace in the region continue to evade their responsibilities in confronting Israeli policies or taking punitive measures against them, whether out of fear or complacency. Consequently, as a cover for their inaction, they exaggerate the potential impact of the Israeli elections, linking everything to the downfall of Netanyahu and his fascist government.
While not diminishing the importance of dismantling the abhorrent Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben-Gvir alliance, it is crucial to remember that changing the individuals in the Israeli government will not fundamentally alter its policies. To confirm this, one must examine the positions of the leading figures of the Israeli Zionist opposition, on whom many Western leaders place their hopes.

Bennett and Eisenkot

Naftali Bennett, who allied with Lapid and was leading the opposition in the polls before falling behind Eisenkot, stated unequivocally that his political plan includes annexing 60% of the West Bank (the so-called Area C), confining Palestinian self-rule to Areas A and B, while maintaining Israeli occupation and sovereignty, and that there is no place for a Palestinian state. Thus, both men are outdoing Netanyahu in extremism, despite his intention to annex the West Bank, even though he has not dared to do so.

Eisenkot, the leader of the opposition bloc that continues to gain ground in the polls, also stated unequivocally that there is no place for a Palestinian state now and called for continued Israeli security control in the West Bank, particularly in the Jordan Valley. Yair Golan and his Democratic Party do not call for ending the occupation or dismantling settlements, and link any future political arrangements solely to Israeli security needs. The other opposition leader, Avigdor Lieberman, rejects a return to the 1967 borders, which implicitly means rejecting an end to the occupation. He wants to strip Arab citizens of their nationality, supports the continued existence of most Israeli settlements and their annexation to Israel, rejects the division of Jerusalem and insists on its annexation and continued Israeli sovereignty, and calls for escalating military attacks on the Gaza Strip and the complete elimination of Hamas.
The problem is no longer just the positions and policies of Israeli political parties, but also the attitudes of the majority of Israeli society itself and its slide toward fascist ideas and tendencies.

Smotrich Revealed the Government’s True Intentions

There is no need to recall Netanyahu’s positions, who declared his intention to annex the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip, in addition to Jerusalem and the occupied Golan Heights, in his speech at the United Nations in September 2023, before October 7^th. He has continued to declare his life’s goal as preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, and he and his government are still working to carry out ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip. Smotrich, however, revealed the true intentions of deep Zionism when he
stated that the program of the next government should include the annexation of the West Bank, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and the cancellation of the Oslo Accords.
When most Western politicians speak of a solution and peace, the discussion usually revolves around the idea of a “two-state solution,” meaning “the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, alongside Israel.” But this means, first and foremost, that Israel must agree to the establishment of a genuine Palestinian state, not merely a distorted, powerless entity on fragmented territory. It certainly means ending the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and dismantling the settlements and outposts in the occupied territories, which currently number around 500. It also means that occupied East Jerusalem must be the capital of the Palestinian state, thus ending its illegal annexation. And it means that the Palestinian state, even if demilitarized as some Western leaders advocate, must have sovereignty over its land, borders, natural resources, airspace, and electromagnetic spectrum, and must have free and independent borders with the outside world.
If you examine the positions of the Zionist Israeli parties, both ruling and opposition, you will not find a single one willing to accept a complete end to the occupation, the removal of settlements, the division of Jerusalem, or even dialogue regarding the rights of Palestinian refugees. Nor will you find a single party, from the Democrats to Eisenkot, Lieberman, Lapid, and Naftali Bennett, that accepts Palestinian sovereignty over the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On the contrary, the pretext of security will always be readily available to justify the denial of Palestinian rights, even over 22% of the land of Palestine, with all the historical injustice this entails for the Palestinian people.
The expected outcome of racist and occupation policies and the settler-colonial project can only be confirmed.
The dilemma, especially after the brutal war of extermination on the Gaza Strip and the terrorist settlement war on the West Bank, is no longer limited to the positions and policies of Israeli political parties, but extends to the attitudes of the majority of Israeli society itself and its slide towards fascist ideas and tendencies. This is compounded by the growing influence of two dangerous forces: the extreme fascist religious Zionism represented by Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, which has merged with the racist extremism of the Likud party, and the second base of fascism: the 850,000 settlers occupying the West Bank. Indeed, as a poll conducted by the Accord Center at the Hebrew University revealed, 76% of Israeli Jews do not believe there are innocent people in the Gaza Strip, even children. Any objective assessment of the reality and political data can only confirm the expected outcome of racist and occupation policies and the settler-colonial project, regardless of who wins the Israeli elections.

The Only Strategy – Make the Cost of Occupation and Wars Too High

The only strategy that can change the reality is to shift the balance of power with Israel, making the cost of continued occupation, wars, and oppression too high for it to bear. The two most important elements of this strategy today are: first, the steadfastness of the Palestinians and their continued presence on their land in the West Bank, Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and within Israel itself, and thwarting the plots of displacement, forced expulsion, and ethnic cleansing; and second, unified action to mobilize the broadest possible sanctions, boycotts, and isolation, from which the Israeli system is already reeling.
Anyone who wants to see a just peace in the Middle East and an end to the era of wars must throw their weight behind supporting the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and imposing sanctions on those who prevent the Palestinian people from achieving their freedom, rather than engaging in a new cycle of promoting the illusion of compromise with Zionist extremism which is dominating Israel.