{"id":606664,"date":"2026-09-05T11:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/606664\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T11:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:32:13","slug":"netanyahus-political-future-on-line-as-conflicts-escalate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/606664\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu\u2019s political future on line as conflicts escalate"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 2<\/a> episode of \u201cThe 11th Hour with Ali Velshi.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just over 50 days until Israel\u2019s parliamentary elections, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> is in the fight of his political life. Which, for Netanyahu, is saying something. He\u2019s Israel\u2019s longest-serving leader, having held power for 19 of the last 30 years across three stints as prime minister.<\/p>\n

But more complicated than the political fight is a legal fight: Netanyahu\u2019s long-running corruption trial<\/a> continues. As prime minister, he\u2019s pushed for a pardon<\/a> from Israel\u2019s president and tried to fire<\/a> Israel\u2019s attorney general, who is overseeing the case.<\/p>\n

If he\u2019s out of power, he would have no such leverage. Experts say<\/a> Netanyahu\u2019s re-election strategy is an attempt to paint himself as a wartime leader and to harness a rally-around-the-flag effect. To that end, he\u2019s leading Israel\u2019s military in conflicts on multiple fronts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To Israel\u2019s south, strikes on Gaza have continued despite the declaration of a ceasefire with Hamas 11 months ago. Gaza\u2019s health ministry reports that over 900<\/a> people have been killed by Israeli forces this year. According to UNICEF<\/a>, more than 300 children have been killed since that ceasefire was announced last year. The Israeli military has said its strikes are targeting members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.<\/p>\n

Last month, Israel formally and very publicly rejected a 15-point plan set out by President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s \u201cBoard of Peace,\u201d which called for a phased withdrawal<\/a> of the country\u2019s troops from Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas. On Wednesday, Israel\u2019s defense minister said he is seeking Trump and America\u2019s backing to start forcibly expelling<\/a> the entire Palestinian population of Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, to the north, Israel continues to occupy a significant portion of southern Lebanon. Some Israeli leaders, including the far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, have publicly declared they want to annex parts of the country<\/a> permanently. Smotrich previously promised<\/a> that areas of southern Lebanon would resemble the destruction of cities in Gaza.<\/p>\n

And Israel\u2019s war with Hezbollah continues. While the U.S. has brokered deals between Israel and Lebanon, Hezbollah has not been a party to those talks and has repeatedly rejected both the talks and the ceasefires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the United Nations<\/a>, more than 350,000 Lebanese citizens remain displaced since the beginning of March, when full-scale fighting resumed.<\/a> The humanitarian relief organization Save the Children<\/a> reports that more than 4,300 people have been killed since then, including 257 children.<\/p>\n

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Violence in the West Bank<\/a> has also escalated dramatically in recent weeks. The U.N. warned in July that attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank had reached an all-time high<\/a>. The U.N. said settlers \u201cfrequently attack families, burn mosques and destroy and confiscate property.\u201d An analysis from The New York Times<\/a> found that more than 3,200 Palestinians have been displaced by settler attacks this year alone in the West Bank, double the rate of that in 2025.<\/p>\n

The Israeli human rights organization B\u2019Tselem<\/a> has documented 66 Palestinian communities in the West Bank that have been completely expelled since Oct. 7, 2023. The latest is Khirbet a-Taban, which was entirely demolished by Israeli authorities on Wednesday, displacing all 76 of its residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another far-right member of Netanyahu\u2019s cabinet, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who himself is a West Bank settler, has called for Israel to fully annex the territory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last month, Israeli settlers attacked three homes in the village of Qusra, one of which is owned by a Palestinian American. The Associated Press<\/a> reported that dozens of settlers surrounded the homes for five nights, threw stones and blocked the inhabitants from leaving as they ran out of food and water.<\/p>\n

\tMore articles<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAli Velshi<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAli Velshi is the host of \u201cThe 11th Hour,\u201d which airs weeknights at 11 p.m. on MS NOW.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 2 episode of \u201cThe 11th Hour with Ali Velshi.\u201d It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-606664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}