There are actually 2 distinct conflicts in Israel. It's important to distinguish them.

War with Hamas is not what will determine the future of the region

A protester.
(Image credit: Illustrated | REUTERS, iStock)

On the eve of the current violence in Israel/Palestine, something extraordinary was about to happen. For the first time, a new Israeli government was going to be formed dependent on the support of an independent Arab party: the Islamist Ra'am, led by Mansour Abbas. The coalition that would have supported that government would have been extraordinarily broad, ranging from the far left to the far right, united only by the determination to end Benjamin Netanyahu's tenure as prime minister. And while the architect of the coalition was the centrist leader of the Yesh Atid Party, Yair Lapid, the prime minister would initially have been the right-wing leader of the Yamina Party, Naftali Bennett.

I don't know which is more remarkable, that Abbas would have accepted Bennett as prime minister, or that Bennett would have accepted depending on Abbas' support. But for a moment, there was agreement.

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Noah Millman

Noah Millman is a screenwriter and filmmaker, a political columnist and a critic. From 2012 through 2017 he was a senior editor and featured blogger at The American Conservative. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Politico, USA Today, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Modern Age, First Things, and the Jewish Review of Books, among other publications. Noah lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.