If this Mideast war is over, what's next for Israelis, Palestinians, and Iranians?

I truly hope this Iran-Israel ceasefire holds and gets extended to the Gaza Strip—first and foremost to see an end to all the killing.

- By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

But second, because I think this war will trigger, in its aftermath, much-needed debates in Iran, Israel, and the Palestinian community.

These debates won't happen the morning the guns fall silent, when leaders from every country involved will try to claim some sort of victory. But everything in my gut tells me these debates will happen the morning after the morning after—when all the internal politics will start to kick in.

Among Palestinians in Gaza, the question will be asked of their defeated Hamas leaders: "What in the world were you thinking on Oct. 7, 2023? You started a war with Israel, a vastly superior military foe, with no end game other than destruction, which only got the Jews to retaliate with no end game other than destruction. You sacrificed tens of thousands of homes and lives to win the sympathies of the next generation of global youth on TikTok, but now there is no Gaza."

Among Israelis, the question that will be asked of Israel's radical religious-nationalist government by the largely secular elements of that society—air force pilots, cyberwarriors, technologists, scientists, weapons designers, and Mossad agents, the people who actually defeated Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran—is this: "Where do you think you're taking us? We were the ones who won this war and we will not let you leverage this victory to win the next election and carry out your plan to crush our Supreme Court, annex the West Bank, excuse the ultra-Orthodox from serving in the army and create a pariah Israel that our kids will no longer want to live in. No way."