Politically, Netanyahu’s tenure has
been Israel’s least tumultuous. Netanyahu
has served longer than any other
Israeli prime minister except David
Ben-Gurion, yet he has led Israel in only
one ground war: the limited Operation
Protective Edge in Gaza in 2014. “I’d
feel better if our partner was not the
trigger-happy Netanyahu,” wrote the New
York Times columnist Maureen Dowd
four years ago. But Netanyahu hasn’t
pulled triggers, even against Iran. The
Israeli electorate keeps returning him to
office precisely because he is risk averse:
no needless wars, but no ambitious peace
plans either. Although this may produce
“overwhelming frustration” in Obama’s
White House, in Vice President Joe Biden’s
scolding phrase, it suits the majority of
Israeli Jews just fine.