HA Viewpoint reports: On the 10th, the Likud Party—Netanyahu’s party and one of Israel’s ruling parties—announced that Netanyahu will run in the next Israeli parliamentary election. Israeli media widely linked this announcement to statements from the U.S. According to The Times of Israel, President Trump said in an interview on the 8th that he was unsure whether Netanyahu would continue in politics, adding, “Does he even want to keep going? You know, he’s a wartime prime minister.”
A photo of Netanyahu.
The Times of Israel reported on the 10th that Netanyahu has never indicated he would skip the election scheduled for this fall, and he has already started an active campaign. The paper had previously analyzed in an article titled “Netanyahu Reshapes Election Strategy as Regional Dreams Fade” that he originally hoped to leverage regional conflicts to boost his election prospects. However, Israel is now bogged down in the war in Lebanon, and Trump’s push for U.S.-Iran negotiations sharply contrasts with Netanyahu’s hardline stance—factors that cast doubt on his electoral future.
AFP notes that as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Netanyahu’s political future is shadowed by strained U.S.-Israel relations and growing criticism from the opposition over his wartime leadership. Critics argue that while his government repeatedly claims progress in destroying Hamas, dismantling Hezbollah, and curbing Iran, these military achievements have not yielded lasting political or security results.
An Israeli Democracy Institute poll conducted from late May to early June, cited by Haaretz, found that most Israelis believe Netanyahu should not run in this election. According to the data, 61% of respondents think he should not seek re-election. The report notes that a majority of left-wing, center-left, and centrist respondents oppose his re-election, and even about a quarter of right-wing respondents share that view.
The Times of Israel reports that under current conditions, Netanyahu wants the election to be delayed as much as possible—ideally to around October 20, a week before the latest possible date of October 27—to buy more time for positive developments in diplomacy and security. The report suggests Netanyahu may be eyeing two major events this September: delivering an “impressive, historic” speech at the UN General Assembly, and a possible visit by Trump to Israel. A source close to Netanyahu told the paper that Trump originally planned to visit in May, but Netanyahu “convinced him that a visit just before the election would be politically more advantageous.”
