Protesters hold up images of hostages as they gather to demonstrate against Netanyahu's plans to expand occupation in Gaza on August 7, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Photographer: Amir Levy/Getty Images EuropeIsrael Is Heading Toward an Isolation It Can’t Afford
Netanyahu has doubled down on war in Gaza — again. That can only threaten his country’s long-term survival.
How on earth did Israel get to this point, and how can it escape? These two questions seem unavoidable after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his response to months of criticism and outrage over his conduct of the war in Gaza. It was, in a nutshell, more war.
It’s important to recall that Israel experienced a moment of unprecedented global support and sympathy less than two years ago — after Hamas fighters swarmed into the country on Oct. 7, 2023, seizing 250 hostages and slaughtering 1,200 people with a savagery so abhorrent it seemed it would do permanent damage to the Palestinian cause.