The Rhetoric of Resolve

When democratic campaigns turn into competitions over military resolve, strategic nuance is usually the first casualty. As voters in Israel prepare to head to the polls, the fierce contest between Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud coalition and Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party offers plenty of political drama, but virtually no divergence on the policy governing the Gaza Strip.

Eisenkot, a former chief of military staff whose party currently leads in the polls, presents himself as the pragmatic leader capable of restoring Israel's international standing after three years of war. Yet any assumption that a shift in leadership heralds a softer posture misreads the man and the political landscape. Eisenkot is the military mind behind the Dahiya doctrine—the strategy of deploying overwhelming force against infrastructure in areas where militants operate. Both he and Netanyahu share the same baseline: the complete dismantling of Hamas rule and alignment with Donald Trump’s peace framework.

For the nearly one million displaced Palestinians living in makeshift camps across Khan Younis and Rafah, the election in Jerusalem is less a beacon of potential change than a signal of their geopolitical irrelevance. Mainstream Israeli political strategy treats the humanitarian disaster as an uncomfortable side effect rather than a policy priority. The Arab-led Joint List recently broadcast drone footage showing Gaza’s destroyed neighbourhoods, calling out the political consensus for treating such destruction as normal. Yet the chances of such parties influencing a future ruling coalition remain effectively zero.

On the ground, daily reality is governed by supply bottlenecks rather than electoral manifestos. Commercial deliveries have been suspended for roughly a week, pushing the cost of basic items like flour to more than three times their previous price. With over 75,000 fatalities recorded since October 2023, including more than 20,000 children, the operational reality for Gaza's population remains static regardless of who wins office.

Whether an Eisenkot or Netanyahu administration ultimately permits 100 aid trucks or 200 through the border points is a detail of logistics, not a change in doctrine. In the cynical arithmetic of campaign politics, military toughness sells to the electorate; articulating a coherent, long-term plan for the ruins across the border does not.

Written by Thomas Nussbaumer thomas.nussbaumer@alpineweekly.com