Herb Keinon

As Netanyahu and Trump weigh their next moves against Iran, the approaching elections raise a difficult question: Is military action driving politics, or is politics driving military action?

It was a different time. Everybody watched the same station, giving the parties an opportunity today’s campaign managers can only dream of: reaching a broad audience in one place.

The flydubai attack may not bring Israel and Saudi Arabia closer, but it forces Riyadh to ask: Should it keep one of its strongest potential regional partners at arm’s length?

NATIONAL AFFAIRS: Despite painful October 7 commemorations, Netanyahu's bloc holds steady in polls as both sides clash over security failures, military achievements, and the flydubai incident.

Israel has absorbed more common lessons about security than its fractured public life in the wake of October 7. The problem is that those shared lessons have not translated into shared obligations.

October 7 will affect the elections not only through the issues being debated, but also through the people who will be doing the debating.

Israeli passengers stepped forward when disaster struck. In the days that followed, officials stepped back, each explaining why responsibility for the security failure belonged to someone else.

DIPLOMATIC AFFAIRS: From Netanyahu’s UAE visit to the emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, a dramatic week reveals the possibilities and limits of regional cooperation.

Israel is a small country, and in moments like these it feels smaller still. People who have never met became “our passengers.” Their survival was a national relief.

The difficulty with postponing an inquiry is that postponement does not end the questions. It leaves them hanging, waiting for someone else to answer them.