Next elections, Israel's politics of boycott against Netanyahu must end - opinion

Then, it didn’t ring true, and now, it’s clear that nothing about it was random.

On Wednesday, a senior US official arrived at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem and hand-delivered a signed letter from Trump to Herzog. The message was simple – give Netanyahu the pardon – but it also made clear that if the American president does not get his way, he is not done. It ended, of course, with the familiar Trump line, “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Two questions immediately arise. First, can Herzog even pardon Netanyahu? The prime minister is still on trial and has not officially requested a pardon, which is usually a necessary step in Israel. Second, what will Herzog do?

Beneath the legal technicalities lies a deeper question about what Israel wants to see happen after the upcoming election, which will need to be held by October 2026. The Trump letter may be about Netanyahu’s fate, but it reflects something larger about Israel’s own need for pardon and the need to move on from years of internal division, boycotts, and political paralysis.

Yet, after years of elections, failed coalitions, and an unprecedented and unresolved war in Gaza, it’s worth asking what all of that has achieved. Has the anti-Bibi crusade worked? Has it made Israel safer or stronger? The honest answer is no.

The obsession with one man has paralyzed the system. If the sole principle that holds a political movement together is who it refuses to sit with, then that movement is not leading; it’s stalling.

This is not to absolve Netanyahu of responsibility and the need to be held accountable. October 7 was an unprecedented failure that happened on his watch and due to his government’s policies. He has also repeatedly betrayed political allies. Just ask Benny Gantz. But when he refuses to go and the opposition cannot muster the strength or strategy to replace him, Israelis have one remaining democratic mechanism: the ballot box. That is the point of elections.

Over the past year, we have watched how issues of life and death – like the fate of the hostages – were twisted to score points on one side of the political map or the other.

We have seen how the ultra-Orthodox draft exemption remains frozen in place, not because there is disagreement over the need for reform but because politics makes reform impossible. Every major party knows that Israel cannot survive as a country when tens of thousands of able-bodied young men do not share in the national burden. But Netanyahu relies on the haredi parties to stay in power, and the opposition refuses to sit with him, so nothing changes.

Across the political spectrum – Likud, Yesh Atid, Blue and White, Yisrael Beytenu, and even parts of the Religious Zionist Party – there is far more consensus than we are led to believe. This applies to the need to draft haredim, strengthen the economy, rebuild the IDF, and bolster the South and the North.

Yes, there are sharp disagreements over judicial reform and the future of Judea and Samaria, but on the core question of how to preserve Israel’s cohesion, mainstream Zionists usually speak in one voice. Put Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid in a room with Eli Cohen and Nir Barkat from the Likud or even RZP head Bezalel Smotrich, and they could easily draft a national service plan acceptable to most Israelis. The tragedy is that politics keeps them from trying.

Inside tanks in Gaza and along the border with Lebanon, soldiers do not ask one another who they voted for. They do not care if their commander would sit or not sit with Netanyahu in a coalition. They fight, sacrifice, and sometimes die together for the same country. That unity of purpose is Israel at its best, and it is exactly what our politics have forgotten.

Yes, Netanyahu made his choice to partner with the far-right and the ultra-Orthodox, and he bears responsibility for the government that he created and the failures that it created. But the opposition’s blanket refusal to sit with him is also part of the story. Without an alternative, what government could he even form?

In other words, when everyone digs in behind an ideological wall, the extremists gain power.

Imagine a government built from the Zionist mainstream with a coalition of pragmatists who may argue on policy but agree on the fundamentals of the state. This would include Likud, Blue and White, Yesh Atid, Yisrael Beytenu, the party led by Naftali Bennett, and even parts of the RZP. It would have a commanding majority and the freedom to tackle our urgent national problems without being held hostage by narrow sectarian interests.

No one knows whether Netanyahu would even take that opportunity if it were offered. If he doesn’t, we will at least know where he really stands. But we need to have it on the table, and for that to happen, the opposition parties need to lift the boycott over sitting with him.

Which brings us back to Trump’s letter. As Herzog read it, he must know that the real question is not whether Netanyahu deserves a pardon but whether Israel does. Whether we can move on from wasted time and remember that the state was built by people who knew how to work together despite their differences.

Israel is entering one of the most uncertain periods in its history while facing threats from without and fragmentation from within. It cannot afford to remain trapped in a politics of boycotts.

There is an overwhelming Zionist majority in this country that is pragmatic, patriotic, and moderate. It is time for that majority to reclaim its voice and purpose.