How Israel Wins Wars and Loses Peace

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently stood next to President Trump in the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem and summarized the last two years of the war:

“Israel won astonishing victories over Hamas and the entire terror axis of Iran – Sinwar, Deif, Haniyah, Nasrallah, Assad – they are all gone.”

This list refers to countries (Iran, Syria and Lebanon), groups (Hamas and Hezbollah) and individuals (Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyah of Hamas, Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah and Bashar al-Assad of Syria) that have been Israel’s main enemies for decades.

But at the same time, “While Netanyahu won wars, he was unable to win anything of peace or peace,” he said. Paul Salemwhich is located in Lebanon at the Middle East Institute. “He was unable to translate his military victories into lasting political victories. He was digging Israel deeper into a hole.”

Israel has also faced scathing international criticism. This is mainly due to the Gaza war, which started with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which, according to Israeli authorities, killed 1,144 people. In its brutal response, the Israeli army has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to health officials in Gaza.

Israel is indicted at the International Court of Justice for genocide, and Netanyahu has been indicted at the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Israel and Netanyahu reject both accusations.

For Israel: “From a purely military perspective, things look much better. From a foreign policy perspective, things could not have deteriorated much more than they have,” said Chuck Freilicha former deputy national security advisor in Israel.

“I think the war has had a long-term impact,” he added. “It will take a long time for Israel to regain its international status of, say, 30 or 40 years ago.”

In the 1990s, Israel and the Palestinians spent much of the decade trying to negotiate an end to their conflict, with the international community supporting these efforts.

Bodies of unidentified Palestinians who returned from Israel were buried in a mass grave in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on Monday.

Jehad Alshrafi/AP

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Jehad Alshrafi/AP

Friction in ties between Israel and the US

Today, criticism of Israel comes from all sides. Outrage in the Arab world. Massive protests in European cities and on American college campuses.

Still, Freilich says his biggest concern is the U.S.-Israeli relationship, which he has seen from both sides. He was born and raised in the US. He moved to Israel, where he became a security officer. He still lives in Israel, but teaches in the US for a semester every year, currently at Georgetown University.

“To me, this is really the only existential threat Israel faces: the loss of American support,” he said. “Israel needs the United States critically for virtually every problem it faces.”

Israel used to have rock-solid bipartisan support in the US

“Today there is an absolute collapse of support on the Democratic side, and we are seeing the beginning of a decline in support on the Republican side,” he said.

Trump remains a staunch supporter of Israel, but he has set red lines. He is putting pressure on Israel to adhere to the ceasefire. He has explicitly told Israel not to annex the West Bank, where half a million Jewish settlers live on land the Palestinians claim for a future state.

Salem says these actions show Trump’s willingness to stand up to Israel in ways that previous U.S. presidents have not.

“He doesn’t always seem to follow what Israel, the Israeli lobby or Israel’s prime minister wants,” Salem said.

Before the Gaza war broke out in 2023, some younger Arabs were not as passionate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as previous generations, who had championed the Palestinian cause since the first major war in 1948.

The latest Gaza war has energized the younger generation, Salem said.

“This is a war fought live on TikTok that didn’t happen in 1948,” he said. “This has branded an entire generation.”

The relationships are cool, but similarities endure

The recent fighting has also been a stress test for the Abraham chords. These are the 2020 agreements hammered out during Trump’s first term that established relations between Israel and four Muslim countries.

The war caused tensions, but the agreements survived, notes Erel Margalita prominent Israeli venture capitalist who started doing business in the Gulf states after the accords were signed.

‘We have companies that deal with it [United Arab Emirates] banks and Bahraini banks and Saudi banks and insurance companies and the government,” he said.

Speaking more broadly about Israeli-Arab business ties, which have largely come to a standstill in recent years, he said: “It’s not talked about too much in public. It’s not hidden, but it’s quiet. I think a lot of it is coming back.”

However, improving Israel’s international status will likely take time.

What the region needs, Margalit said, are Israeli and Arab political leaders who can move beyond the endless cycle of conflict.

“More political leadership is needed because the region can certainly use new initiatives as we leave this war behind us,” he said.

Much may depend on what happens next in Gaza. If the ceasefire holds and reconstruction begins in Gaza, Israel’s isolation may begin to ease.

But the ceasefire remains shaky. On Tuesday, Israel accused Hamas of shooting at Israeli troops still in Gaza. Netanyahu ordered “strong attacks” in response, and Palestinian officials reported airstrikes in Gaza City late Tuesday night.