With Hostages Home, Netanyahu’s Future Is Back On The Table

-Analysis-

PARIS — Speaking before the Knesset on Monday morning, U.S. President Donald Trump urged Israeli lawmakers to put an end to the corruption proceedings against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His remarks drew loud applause from members of the right-wing and far-right majority.

The day before, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff observed that a large part of the population does not share this view. When he mentioned Netanyahu’s name while addressing the large crowd gathered in Tel Aviv to celebrate the end of the hostages’ ordeal, he was booed at length, while Trump’s name was cheered.

This mixed reception raises an important question for the future of the Gaza agreement: will Israelis see Netanyahu as the man who weakened Iran and its allies, or will he be remembered as the man responsible for the security failure of October 7 and, before that, the political leader who pushed an anti-democratic agenda?

This debate was at a standstill before the hostages were freed, but can now be revisited within Israeli society.

A telling episode Monday suggests that this goes beyond Israel. Trump reportedly tried, at the last minute, to invite Netanyahu to the Sharm el-Sheikh summit on Gaza — a gathering in the Egyptian resort town from which the Israeli leader had been excluded. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to boycott if Netanyahu attended. Citing a religious holiday, Netanyahu declined the invitation.

International opinion

Israel now finds itself facing a surge of international hostility because of its devastating war in Gaza — a conflict that has left more than 60,000 dead, including thousands of children. And in the eyes of much of the world it is Netanyahu who has come to embody that relentless military campaign.

Domestically, public sentiment is shifting. When the hostages were finally brought back, many Israelis credited Trump rather than their own prime minister — the same Netanyahu who had resisted ending the war and was ultimately compelled to do so under pressure from the U.S..

With or without him, Israel will soon have to rebuild its foreign relations — a mission that seems all but impossible while Netanyahu remains in office. Let’s not forget that he is still facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.

As long as Netanyahu and his current coalition hold power, there will be no genuine peace process.

Whether Netanyahu is politically at risk remains the great unknown in the aftermath of the war. His popularity has fluctuated over the past two years, rising and falling with each crisis. A poll published last week showed him running neck-and-neck with the opposition should new elections be called — but that was before the end of this phase of the war, and above all, before the hostages were released.

Up to Israelis

The truth is that Netanyahu is a formidable political operator — shrewd, tactical, and, like a phoenix, forever capable of reinventing himself. His effort to portray himself as the winner of this new chapter is telling — only days after he was compelled, and even humiliated, by Donald Trump to issue an apology to Qatar for the bombing of Doha.

What remains clear is that as long as Netanyahu and his current coalition hold power, there will be no genuine peace process with the Palestinians, no prospect of a two-state solution, and no halt to settlement expansion.

But it is ultimately Israelis who will decide his future. In many ways, Monday marked the unofficial start of the next election campaign — even if the date of that vote is still unknown.