Prime Minister Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan did not survive the 1973 war. Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon did not survive the 1982 First Lebanon War. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz were politically fatally wounded by the 2006 Second Lebanon War. With such precedents and a cumulative indictment, it is difficult to see how Netanyahu would survive the expected day of reckoning. Hence, Mr. President, we urge you to ignore his statements about the futures of Gaza, Israel, and the Middle East, as they will soon be forgotten.

Shai Feldman is the Raymond Frankel Chair in Israeli Politics and Society at Brandeis University’s Crown Center for Middle East Studies. In 2019-22, Feldman served as the president of Sapir College near Sderot, Israel. Sapir faculty, administrators, and students were among the Israelis murdered by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

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