• Politics.Benjamin Netanyahu agitates the vote of fear
  • Conflict.'Pax americana 'for the Middle East

Gigantic electoral posters have shown all over Israel to Benjamin Netanyahu shaking hands with Donald Trump to highlight the close relationship of the Likud leader with the US president and his profile as an international statesman . The elections may change the protagonist of these images, but they will not fail to illustrate that whoever governs Israel has a key role in international politics, in a context of pressure against Iran and when European democracies try to save the nuclear agreement, after the departure of USA.

Why is it important who will be Israel's next prime minister?

The Middle East is at a time of maximum regional tension in which there is a serious risk of a large-scale conflict. The oil tanker crisis this summer, followed by drone attacks on two refineries in Saudi Arabia last weekend are sounding the alarms of a confrontation between Riyadh and Tehran. In between, Netanyahu has not stopped raising international pressure against Iran since he is in the Government. In the last weeks of the campaign, Netanyahu has fired in all directions, launching targeted attacks against targets related to Iran in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq . Breaking the ambiguity policy when it comes to claiming or not bombing in neighboring countries, Netanyahu has given, for example, profuse details of the drone attack against Hezbollah in Beirut, in a political strategy to gain followers. Israel owns the most powerful army in the Middle East and the prime minister decides when it should take action. Netanyahu has fed a profile of Mister Security and has been bellicose when taking action against Iran and its allies in the area, but his rival, Benny Gantz, does not have a less important security shadow: he is a general who has commanded many of these military operations and that is also favorable to act against Tehran.

Can the new president maintain US pressure against Iran?

On the same weekend that Israel was bombing Iranian targets in neighboring countries, the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, took a blow to the effect that in the G7 Trump he would be open to meet with the Iranian president, Hasan Rohani, to resolve the dispute over the nuclear agreement. Netanyahu's attempts to telephone the US president and his calls to the world to realign against Tehran , whom he accused of "working on a broad front to carry out terrorist attacks against Israel," were in vain. If there is indeed an appeasement between Washington and Tehran, Netanyahu's ambition to undermine the regional power of the Islamic Republic will be at risk.

How will the name of the next prime minister affect the future of the Palestinians?

Since Israel occupies the Palestinian Territories, the fate of its people depends on who has the key to the Knesset. Netanyahu has promised that he will never agree on a Palestinian state with sovereignty, arguing that that would threaten Israel's security. The leader of the Likud has pledged to annex the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, which borders Jordan and comprises 30% of the West Bank . Hours before the election date, 'Bibi' requested "a clear mandate" to execute this plan, in an attempt to win the vote of the settlers. The position of the centrist Gantz is not so clear. The leader of Blue and White has not ruled on whether he accepts a Palestinian state, but he refuses to withdraw from the occupied territories. In addition, as soon as the question of who the head of the government will be cleared is cleared, Trump plans to announce his peace plan - the "agreement of the century" - rejected by the Palestinians.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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