Opportunist knocks Will 'victory' in Iran buy Netanyahu more years in power?

When Benjamin Netanyahu described the opportunities for peace that Israel's victory over Iran might bring, supporters took him at his word.

- By Jason Burke

"This victory presents an opportunity for a dramatic widening of peace agreements. We are working on this with enthusiasm," Israel's prime minister said last Thursday in a prerecorded statement.

Critics of the 75-year-old leader saw something else.

"Whatever he does, he tries to turn everything to his advantage. Everything is opportunistic and everything is transactional," said Prof Yossi Mekelberg at Chatham House in London.

Quite how long Netanyahu will stay in power is now a burning question in Israel.

With the Iran war apparently over, the conflict in Gaza has returned to the headlines. On the day after the US declared a ceasefire, seven Israeli soldiers died in an attack on an outdated armoured vehicle, prompting further urgent calls in Israel for the hostilities to be brought to a close.

Back in the headlines, too, are the deep divisions in Israeli society and within the coalition Netanyahu put together in November 2022. This is the most rightwing government seen in Israel, and it has survived many challenges since the 7 October 2023 Hamas raid into Israel.

For Prof Tamar Hermann, a specialist in public opinion at the Israel Democracy Institute, the war has changed little in terms of Israel's polarised domestic politics.