Benjamin Netanyahu Is No Longer Israel’s Indispensable Leader
TEL AVIV—The Likud-party headquarters is an ugly, 16-floor office block in the unfashionable end of this city’s downtown. Its relative distance from taller towers means it’s visible from afar, though, and during election season, the sides of the building are covered by billboards exhorting the public to vote Likud.
A few weeks before Israel’s latest election—the second this year, which once again resulted in political deadlock—the posters went up, this time featuring photographs of Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud’s longtime leader and Israel’s prime minister for the past decade, standing beside different world leaders: Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi, and Donald Trump. Netanyahu is in a different league, the ads read.
The inference was clear; Netanyahu was a diplomatic asset and replacing him was unthinkable. This, in essence, has been Netanyahu’s strategy since he began his public career 37 years ago, honed through a careful reading of both American and Israeli politics, or rather, the interaction between them.
Yet Netanyahu will not be representing Israel at the United Nations General Assembly this week, nor will he be meeting with Trump, seeking
