Wars are measured in far more than territory. They are measured in lives lost, promises kept or broken, moral clarity, and the standing a nation maintains in the world. By any strategic measure, Hamas suffered crippling blows. Yet with regard to the most important political measure – whether Israel emerged safer, more secure, and more respected – the answer is painfully mixed.
Let us be clear at the outset: Israel did not start this war. The October 7 massacre was an assault on humanity and on the most basic right of any people to exist in safety. No Israeli parent wants Palestinian children to die. Every Israeli parent wants their children to live. The imperative to protect life is what compelled Israel to act.
Hamas is not a political party with competing policy views; it is an ideology that celebrates annihilation, taught in schools, preached in places of worship, and cheered in some homes. That ideology must be defeated.
Nevertheless, defeat of an enemy does not automatically equal victory for the nation that fights it. Israel’s military succeeded in degrading Hamas’s capabilities. At the same time, Israel has paid an appalling human cost: the loss of soldiers, civilians, and hostages, and a wounded national psyche.
Its wartime conduct and the length of its campaign allowed the world’s attention to fixate on Gaza’s suffering, reframing Israel from victim to aggressor in many public forums. That diplomatic deterioration is a strategic loss.
We must hold our leaders to account. Leadership means protecting citizens before calamity and steering the nation wisely through it. Israel’s political class failed in intelligence, in preparedness, and in policies that left communities exposed on October 7. The same leaders then failed to build a persuasive diplomatic case during the war’s long months. The result: a battered military advantage and a frayed moral and political posture internationally.
Yet this critique must be measured and honest. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deserves credit where it is due. He has long cultivated strategic ties with the West, most critically with the United States. His deep, practiced relationship with successive American administrations and his ability to secure arms transfers, intelligence partnerships, and diplomatic backstops, have been central to Israel’s survival.
Netanyahu’s talent at navigating the corridors of Washington and other Western capitals has produced lifelines Israel could not easily replace. That diplomatic capital mattered during the war and matters still.
Still, diplomatic skill is only one part of leadership. Those same leaders of different parties and successive cabinets must answer for failures that left Israel less secure before the war and diplomatically isolated after it. Accountability is not betrayal; it is patriotism. It is how democracies learn, adapt, and ensure that soldiers do not die for mistakes preventable in peacetime.
The consequences of this leadership gap are already visible beyond Israel’s borders. Jewish life in parts of Europe and elsewhere has become embattled. Businesses and cultural activities, once thriving, are now shadowed by fear. Synagogues and community centers face new threats. Jews traveling abroad feel less safe.
That is not merely an Israeli problem; it is a global one, reflecting how the world’s debate about Israel has been transformed into an atmosphere of suspicion and intimidation toward Jewish communities. Our leaders in Jerusalem must recognize that strategic missteps at home reverberate around the globe and endanger Jewish life everywhere.
Steps Israel should take to enact change
What must change now? First, Israel must pursue military objectives with ruthless clarity and insistence on minimizing civilian harm. A campaign that is long and diffuse allows one’s enemies to recover politically even as their forces are physically struck. Wars must be short, precise, and directed at dismantling the capacity to do harm, not extended into open-ended attrition that grinds a nation down.
Second, Israel must repair its diplomacy with urgency and humility. Netanyahu’s strengths with the West must be matched by a wider, more imaginative outreach: to friends in Africa, Asia, and among the global Jewish community; to moderate Arab states that value stability; and to international civil society that still cares about human life. Israel’s moral argument is strong; it must be presented more effectively, transparently, and compassionately.
Third, the political class must institute real accountability. Independent post-war investigations that are transparent and credible are not threats to the nation; they are instruments of renewal. They tell grieving families that the state will learn and protect them better. They tell the world and our own people that Israel’s democracy responds to failure with reform, not dismissal.
Fourth, we must deny extremists the political victories they crave. The world must see that ending Hamas’s terror is not an act of vengeance but an existential necessity. At the same time, Israel must advance alternatives for Gaza that prevent a return of terror, international trusteeship, monitored reconstruction, vetted governance, and ideas that demand bold diplomacy and long-term international partnerships.
Finally, Israelis must demand leadership that overcomes the petty and corrosive politics that too often substitute for statesmanship. Patriotism today means calling our leaders to account and demanding better. It means supporting those who keep us safe and insisting they do so with competence, foresight, and moral seriousness.
Israel is a resilient nation, a refuge with ancient roots and modern vitality. Our soldiers fight as defenders of a people who have always been both ordinary and extraordinary: parents, teachers, shopkeepers, and artists. They deserve leadership that does more than wage war; they deserve leaders who prevent it when possible, end it wisely when necessary, and rebuild after with honor.
Who won the Gaza war? Not Hamas, not decisively, but neither did Israel secure the full victory it needed, a victory that protects its citizens, preserves its moral standing, and strengthens Jewish life worldwide. That is the task before us: to convert military success into lasting security, to pair diplomatic skill with ethical clarity, and to ensure the mistakes of this war teach us how to be stronger, smarter, and more united in the future.
The writer is an international educator, activist, and diplomacy expert who has served in the Israel Police and represented the Knesset in global public affairs.