Netanyahu Successors Back Same Gaza, Settlement Policies
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- Benjamin Netanyahu is facing renewed electoral challenge, but the article argues he is not the root cause of Israel’s entrenched policies toward Palestinians, which predate his leadership and remain widely supported across the political spectrum.
- Naftali Bennett has positioned himself as a change candidate by advocating for civil marriage and public transit on the Sabbath, but his platform includes stricter Gaza blockade measures than Netanyahu’s, vowing to block hundreds of daily Hamas-affiliated aid trucks.
- Naftali Bennett asserts that 70% of Palestinians want to murder all Israelis and has previously endorsed shooting Palestinian children at protests, framing them as terrorists rather than civilians.
- Yair Lapid and Gadi Eisenkot, often seen as more moderate alternatives, are tied to the same policies of violent domination, with Eisenkot having served in Netanyahu’s war cabinet that authorized the Gaza campaign later linked to ICC indictments.
- Bennett, Lapid, and Eisenkot have jointly pledged to exclude Arab political parties from any future coalition, reinforcing their alignment with exclusionary nationalist politics rather than liberal democratic values.
- The article contends that Netanyahu’s rise reflects broader Israeli societal extremism, not its cause, and that U.S. support enables continued impunity for policies widely condemned as apartheid and genocide by international bodies.
Why it matters: U.S. progressives who see Netanyahu’s removal as a path to aligning Israel with liberal values are misreading the political landscape — every major alternative leader supports the same core policies of occupation and repression, meaning no meaningful shift in Israel’s conduct or accountability is likely, even with a leadership change.
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