It has raised broader questions about Israel\u2019s political leadership, its decades-long mistreatment of Palestinians, and the future of a state built on the continued occupation of Palestinian land.<\/p>\n
Over the same period, the Israeli public has moved further to the right, according to Alon Liel, former director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and an expert on Israeli politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe October 7 attack was deeply traumatic, and the government’s response to it was a huge failure. The scale of the damage and the embarrassment of the government were channelled into a more nationalistic sentiment and a desire for revenge,\u201d Liel tells TRT World.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe media, in the years since, has focused overwhelmingly, perhaps 95 percent of the time, on our suffering, the casualties, the hostages, the destruction inside Israel and so on. As a result, the public has become very angry and nationalistic, strengthening right-wing political parties.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Liel, the result is not only an ideological shift towards more anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab positions, but also an erosion of democratic norms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 20 percent Arab citizens, and hostility towards them has grown, leaving them increasingly isolated,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you intensify pressure on Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and, in some ways, inside Israel itself, you also become less democratic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n A crisis of political trust<\/p>\n The political fallout from October 7 has continued well beyond the initial failure of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to prevent the attack.<\/p>\n The attack exposed serious failures across Israel’s political and security establishment, while the absence of a state commission of inquiry has prolonged the dispute over responsibility.<\/p>\n Netanyahu has resisted calls for such an inquiry, while victims’ families and opposition figures have continued to demand accountability.<\/p>\n For Palestinian scientist and author Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, who was nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, the war has exposed deeper problems within Israel’s political system.<\/p>\n \u201cThe period following October 7 has shown how fragile and unsustainable the pre-existing status quo since 1948 has been, and the systemic inequalities and limitations of relying on military might to maintain a colonial, racist occupation,\u201d Qumsiyeh tells TRT World.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has made clear that lasting stability cannot be achieved without addressing the root causes, including self-determination, human rights, and equal justice for all people in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRather than enhancing security, the three years of genocide have brought the end of this racist regime closer,\u201d Qumsiyeh adds.<\/p>\n Public dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of the war has also remained high.<\/p>\n According to an INSS survey<\/a> conducted for the third anniversary, only 34 percent of Israelis were satisfied with the government’s management of the war on Gaza.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, 75 percent supported establishing a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding October 7.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Israel is safer militarily because we have inflicted significant damage on Iran [during US-Israeli offensives] and the Syrian military [during and after the fall of Assad regime]. But the problem we are facing is political and societal,\u201d Liel says.<\/p>\n \u201cIsraeli society is more divided than it was before; particularly over democracy, corruption and the way the country is governed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe opposition is deeply worried about the erosion of democratic institutions, the media and the country’s bureaucracy, as well as attacks on state institutions,\u201d Liel adds.<\/p>\n The security doctrine exposed<\/p>\n Three years of war have exposed the limits of a security doctrine heavily reliant on military force and inflicted unprecedented destruction on Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n The mass displacement<\/a> of Palestinians and destruction<\/a> of homes and civilian infrastructure have meant that Palestinians have borne the overwhelming human cost of Israel\u2019s military offensive.<\/p>\n For many Israelis, meanwhile, the war has failed to restore a sense of security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hamas resistance group\u2019s October 7 blitz exposed a profound failure at the heart of Israel\u2019s security model,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-638143","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\/638143","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=638143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/21003309_0-16-1280-721.jpeg\"\/)
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