Israeli opposition signal foreign policy change in style, but not substance

None of the three main opposition figures – former military Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, Yair Lapid, and Naftali Bennett, both former prime ministers – offered attendees at Reichman University on Wednesday much criticism of Israel’s recent wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.

Instead, they chose to criticize Netanyahu for the manner in which those campaigns had been conducted and for what they frame as his subservience to United States President Donald Trump, who seems to have prevented Israel from carrying on its wars in Lebanon and Iran at full intensity.

Addressing the conference, Bennett – who will run jointly with Lapid at the next elections – limited his criticism of the Israeli government to his insistence that Israel would fight its wars better: “After a thousand days of war, the truth must be told: Hamas is rearming in the south, Hezbollah is growing stronger, attacking our soldiers and threatening our citizens, and the head of the octopus, the regime in Tehran, remains standing,” he said.

Eisenkot, who polls show to be one of the favorites to replace Netanyahu when elections are called later this year, was equally damning of the means employed by Netanyahu, accusing him of exaggerating the nuclear threat posed by Iran, but continuing to support in principle the wars Netanyahu has pursued in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.

The accusations from opposition figures, like Lapid, that Israel has never been more isolated or regarded as more extremist and unstable by foreign leaders are not without substance. Leaders from across the world have been stinging in their criticism of Israel, with the public mood among its most critical ally, the US, firmly swinging away from its traditional support.