Benyamin Netanyahu, war as the only horizon

Six weeks of truce, more than thirty hostages to be released, negotiations to end the war: in April 2024, Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to submit a ceasefire proposal with Hamas to the security cabinet.

In Tel Aviv, in a room at the Ministry of Defense, the Prime Minister gathered his ministers. Bezalel Smotrich interrupts. The Minister of Finance got wind of the discussions. “If such a capitulation agreement is presented, you no longer have a government,” he warns. It is 5:44 p.m., according to the minutes consulted by the New York Times, which reconstructed the scene. Benyamin Netanyahu denies it, then, all things considered, leans towards his advisers: “Don’t present the plan,” he slips.

Six months earlier, the massacre of October 7 seemed to have marked the end of the career of the record-longing prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu, who had promised for thirty years to protect Israel, had not stopped Hamas from assassinating more...