{"id":17109,"date":"2026-05-17T16:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T16:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/17\/could-a-leadership-change-undo-israels-international-isolation-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T16:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T16:42:11","slug":"could-a-leadership-change-undo-israels-international-isolation-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/17\/could-a-leadership-change-undo-israels-international-isolation-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"Could a leadership change undo Israel\u2019s international isolation? – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opposition leaders hope to end Israel\u2019s isolation, even as they retain policies towards Palestinians that led to it.<\/em>
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Israeli opposition leaders Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have united in an attempt to defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and lead Israel\u2019s next government. But while they have lots to criticise Netanyahu about, they have few qualms with his wars in Gaza and the rest of the region.
Those wars \u2013 in particular the genocide in Gaza, with more than 72,000 Palestinians killed \u2013 have made Israel more unpopular than ever internationally. But Bennett and Lapid, both former prime ministers, seem to be betting that they will be able to rehabilitate Israel\u2019s global reputation if they get into power in elections that must take place before the end of October.
Launching<\/a> the bid for government in April, Bennett, who is on Israel\u2019s far-right politically, promised voters \u201can era of correction\u201d, one where \u201cprofessionals\u201d who \u201cthink only of the good of Israel\u201d would lead the country, rather than the division and isolation brought in by Netanyahu.
Internationally, Israel finds itself more isolated than ever before. A United Nations\u00a0commission<\/a> has determined that Israel has in fact committed genocide in Gaza. In Europe, numerous countries, such as Spain, Norway, and the Republic of Ireland, have been outspoken in their criticism of Israel, with pressure growing from within<\/a> the European Union to suspend the bloc\u2019s trade pact with Israel. Even within the population of its most stalwart ally, the United States, polls repeatedly point to both sides of the political divide growing increasingly angry with Israel\u2019s multiple wars and its apparent influence over US politics.
And, of course, Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael is becoming more isolated,\u201d Beth Oppenheim, a policy fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), told Al Jazeera, pointing to polling in both the US and Europe. \u201cFor now, Trump and Netanyahu retain their public \u2018bromance\u2019, though cracks have emerged during the Iran and Lebanon wars, with the president issuing humiliating diktats to Israel on Truth Social.\u201d
In Europe too, Israel has grown increasingly isolated, with only memories of the Holocaust and more transactional concerns on trade and arms deals standing in the way of a unified response, she added.
And yet, on the question of the wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, and the occupation of the Palestinians, Bennett and Lapid have few criticisms \u2013 and on occasion say that Netanyahu has not gone far enough.
Rather than addressing the tens of thousands of people that Israel has killed in Gaza since 2023 or the dire humanitarian situation forced upon the enclave\u2019s survivors, last year Bennett framed the Palestinian group Hamas as being inherently embedded in Gaza\u2019s remaining civilian infrastructure, thereby justifying Israel\u2019s continued attacks.
\u201cEssentially, they\u2019re just relying on the assumption it\u2019s not Israel that is hated around the world, but Netanyahu,\u201d Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador and consul general in New York, told Al Jazeera, \u201cwhich is fine, but that\u2019s not what they\u2019re going to be judged on. [They are going to be judged on] policy and so far, they\u2019ve been competing with each other to be ever more bellicose.\u201d
\u201cAt no point has either questioned the premise for Israel\u2019s position on Lebanon, the Strait of Hormuz or even Iran,\u201d Pinkas said. \u201cHave they asked if the regime collapsed, why the people didn\u2019t rise up as Netanyahu said, or offered a new policy towards Palestine? No. All they\u2019ve done is criticise the ceasefire.\u201d
While European leaders have been more openly critical of Israel than in the past, the one relationship that matters the most for Israel \u2013 with US leaders \u2013 is still holding. And Bennett and Lapid will prioritise maintaining that relationship.
\u201cBennett will want to get Trump on his side,\u201d political pollster Mitchell Barak told Al Jazeera.
\u201cEurope and many in the West will do what they do,\u201d he said of the lack of Israeli public concern over European outrage. \u201cBut it\u2019s Israel\u2019s security and the relationship with the US that will have the most influence on the public. For now, Netanyahu has that, but we know that Trump can be unpredictable and, if Netanyahu looks like he\u2019s slipping, Trump hates a loser.\u201d
How entrenched Israel\u2019s isolation in Europe might be was also open to question, analysts said.
Western governments have long profited from intelligence gathered by Israel, as well as profited from trade with the country, not least with its cutting-edge technology and spyware software. A change of personnel at the top, Oppenheim suggested, may be enough to signal a return to much of the international fold.
\u201cWhile Western publics are increasingly hostile towards Israel, most governments are still hoping they don\u2019t have to act. A more palatable new government would give leaders an opportunity to reset relations with Israel,\u201d Oppenheim said.
\u201cBut a new Israeli government won\u2019t change the fundamental trajectory. It could pursue a more pragmatic policy towards the Palestinian Authority, clamp down on settler terrorism, and may also be better placed to make diplomatic concessions,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is, however, virtual consensus across all Jewish Israeli parties on rejecting Palestinian statehood while pursuing a more belligerent security doctrine. Netanyahu\u2019s main challenger Naftali Bennett is a true ideological right-winger, while Gadi Eisenkot, Yair Lapid and other centrists [in Israeli terms] effectively compete to outdo one another with hawkish rhetoric.\u201d
European countries, therefore, face a test. They can take the removal of Netanyahu as an opportunity to ease the pressure on Israel, much of which has been a political necessity brought on by public disgust at Israel\u2019s actions. Or they can signal that Israel must change its ways, and not necessarily its leaders \u2013 in essence telling Israel that the shift in support for Israel is staying for the long term.
\u201cA more polite Israeli leadership that makes the right noises may be just the ticket to allow Western governments a reset,\u201d Oppenheim said. \u201cBut if the government\u2019s policies don\u2019t change, Israel will be unable to stave off a reckoning with the West in the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Opposition leaders hope to end Israel\u2019s isolation, even as they retain policies towards Palestinians that led to it.SaveShareIsraeli opposition leaders Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have united in an attempt to defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and lead Israel\u2019s next government. But while they have lots to criticise Netanyahu about, they have few qualms with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}