The US and Iran now have a peace deal. But one front in the war stayed open, and last weekend it nearly wrecked everything: Israel kept striking southern Lebanon, Iran’s red line, and braced for a salvo that never came. The war Washington is closing is not the one on Europe’s doorstep.
There is no argument about Israeli statehood or Jewish self-determination. But a colder reading of the map says: Europe and the present Israeli government no longer want the same things in the Middle East, or share the goals that once made them partners there.
And a vote may not fix it.
The Knesset moved to dissolve in May, with an election due by autumn. But the way Israel reads its threats runs deeper than Benjamin Netanyahu and the ministers beside him. A new government might change the tone, not the divergence.
Israel’s ‘border’ creeps north
