🔶 Tehran's shadow on the elections of the captives in Israel; What will be the fate of the confrontation policy with Iran?
Reporting by Alina Farhadi
The captive elections on Tuesday, October 27 (November 5) are the first national elections in the country after the Hamas ground attack on October 7, 2023; A ground attack that led to one of the deepest security crises in the history of this country.
Now, while Benjamin Netanyahu struggles to maintain power, the question is not only who will become prime minister; The question is, can the possible change of the government change the course of the POW policy towards Tehran?
The importance of this question rose with the public intervention of Donald Trump, the President of the United States, in the electoral process of POWs. Just 9 days before the elections, Trump announced his full support for Binyamin Netanyahu and defined him as a "warrior prime minister and partner for peace in the fight against the Islamic Republic". Trump also warned that if someone else takes over the leadership of Israel's captives, the United States may have to carry out the task of confronting Iran "alone."
This support was announced in a situation where, according to polls published by Ma'ariv newspaper and Channel 11 in captivity, this campaign turned into a close duel between Binyamin Netanyahu and his main opponent, Gadi Eisenkot, former Chief of Staff of the army and head of the Center and Pioneer party "Ishar", while the opposition coalition shared the opposition leadership of "Banhil" and Nathalier. Lapid is the third party of this empowerment.
The election result is not decisive only for the prisoners. For Tehran, the question is whether the possible change of power in Jerusalem can create an opportunity to reduce tensions and diplomatic opening, or whether the close security and intelligence cooperation between Israel and the US and Israel's internal consensus regarding the confrontation with Iran will continue, regardless of the name of the prime minister. According to an exclusive report by the Reuters news agency, analysts and regional policy makers stress that although these elections may lead to "changes in the leadership of the captives", they will not change the country's grand strategy towards Iran.
Deutsche Welle Percy spoke with Raz Simet, director of the Iran program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, Dani Citrinovich, a Middle East expert and one of INSS's senior researchers, Yuri Rosenthal, chairman of the Free Iran Committee and former foreign minister of the Netherlands, Damon Golriz, a researcher at the Geopolitical Research Institute of The Hague, The Hague and senior Navider to Research Institute. Examine these questions: the influence of the composition of the future government on the possibility of a military confrontation and Israel's captive policy towards the axis of resistance, up to Trump's role in making decisions regarding Iran and the impression that the Islamic Republic's decision-making bodies may have on the outcome of the choice of captives.