Netanyahu’s Middle East Shift: Strategic Victory Shadowed by High Cost to Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the horrifying Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, would "change the Middle East." Nearly two years later, this bold prediction has come true in one sense: Israel has dismantled key Iranian-backed militant groups across its borders—crippling Hamas in Gaza, decapitating Hezbollah in Lebanon, and indirectly toppling Syria’s Bashar Assad. Iran’s “tentacles of terror” have been severely weakened. But this strategic success is not without profound costs. The brutal retaliation campaign by Israel has drawn international condemnation for the humanitarian crisis it precipitated in Gaza, with tens of thousands dead and the enclave rendered...