لحظة ادراك

 #Even You, Brutus

The kingdom of Benjamin Netanyahu did not need an army coming from outside to shake its throne.

It needed only for the walls to begin speaking.

The walls that had kept their secrets for so long, the rooms that had closed their doors on warnings that went unheard, the reports that passed across the desks of decision-makers like passing papers on a busy morning, and the messages that should have awakened an entire state—only to be turned into postponed details until October 7 arrived, and everyone awoke to a single question: **How did all this happen?**

**And this is where the real story begins.**

It is not merely the story of Gaza, nor the story of Hamas alone, nor even the story of the intelligence and military failure that preceded the attack. It is the story of a man who built a large part of his political legitimacy on the image of the man who could not be deceived, the man who knew how to protect Israel—only for Israel itself to ask him today: **Where were you when the danger was approaching?**

**And perhaps this is the cruelest irony at the end of the road.**

Netanyahu, who had grown accustomed to presenting himself as the most experienced man in Israel, the man most capable of reading the region and understanding its threats, now finds himself confronted with a question that political rhetoric cannot bury beneath words: What did you do with all the warnings that preceded October 7?

Every time new leaks emerge, and every time another account comes from within the security agencies or the security establishment, the picture looks as though another stone has fallen from the wall of the official narrative. The problem is not a single warning that was not taken seriously, but the picture that has begun to emerge from the accumulation of warnings, signals, and alerts that never became a political and security decision commensurate with the scale of the danger.

And here, the headline becomes even harsher:

**Even you, Brutus!**

As though Netanyahu no longer has the luxury of asking: Who is attacking me?

Instead, he has to ask: **Who is still standing beside me?**

For the kingdom that he long presented through the image of a strongman has begun to lose something more dangerous than military power: **the monopoly over the narrative.**

And the narrative is half of power.

## **When the Past Becomes a Witness Against Its Owner**

Netanyahu was not merely a passing prime minister in Israel's history. Over the years, he built for himself a political persona that almost reduced the state itself to his image.

Security was Netanyahu.

Deterrence was Netanyahu.

Confronting Iran was Netanyahu.

Preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state was Netanyahu.

And the ability to manage the United States, the Arab world, the Israeli domestic scene, the Iranian file, and the Palestinian front all at once became parts of a single political myth.

But myths do not usually die from a single blow.

They erode.

A leak here.

A scandal there.

An investigative commission looming on the horizon.

A soldier returning from Gaza carrying questions.

A hostage's family demanding answers.

A settler asking about security.

An opposition figure saying that the government has lost its way.

Then comes the voter, harsher than all of them, because the voter does not need a long speech to punish a politician.

All it takes is a mark in another box.

And this is the problem Netanyahu now faces on the eve of the October 27, 2026 election, amid polls and mounting pressures indicating that his right-wing camp is facing one of the most difficult political moments of his career, while he tries to unite the forces of the right and prevent the fragmentation of the vote.

The man who once determined the shape of the political map has now begun searching for a way to preserve that very map.

And that, by itself, is a sign.

## **The West Bank... When the Fire Crosses the Border**

Perhaps what makes the current moment particularly dangerous is that Netanyahu's crisis is no longer confined to Gaza.

The West Bank, too, has become an arena where contradictions are accumulating.

Settlement expansion continues.

Settler violence is escalating.

The Israeli government is facing growing international pressure.

In June 2026, Britain, in coordination with Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, and Norway, announced punitive measures against networks and individuals accused of financing and enabling settler violence, while London had imposed sanctions the previous day on two Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, together with four other countries.

Here, however, the significance of the sanctions lies not merely in their financial scale.

Their significance is **political**.

Israel, accustomed to seeing itself surrounded by enemies and assuming that the outside world would ultimately have no choice but to deal with it, has begun to discover that some Western capitals are no longer content with diplomatic concern.

They have begun to **act**.

Britain and its allies explicitly stated that settler violence and settlement expansion undermine the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state and threaten stability.

That is why the Israeli hysteria over these measures is not simply a protest against limited sanctions.

It is fear that what was once an exception could become an **international trend**.

## **The Orange Man... When the Ally Falls Silent**

Then there is the orange man.

Donald Trump.

The man from whom Netanyahu had grown accustomed to finding ample room for maneuver, and who in recent years has provided one of the clearest levels of political support for Israel.

But politics knows no free friendship.

Trump is not a man of sentiment.

He is a man of the deal.

And he knows that Netanyahu, however much of an ally he may be, is not bigger than American interests, not bigger than American electoral calculations, and not bigger than Trump's own project.

That is why Trump's silence at certain moments may be more eloquent than any statement.

A politician does not always need to say, *I am against you.*

Sometimes it is enough simply to **not save you**.

And that is the distance Netanyahu has begun to feel.

Not because Trump has become his adversary, but because their relationship is no longer necessarily one of complete alignment.

And if Netanyahu has grown accustomed to using American support as part of his political deterrence, the question becomes: What happens when American support begins to come with conditions?

That is when the relationship turns from alliance into negotiation.

From negotiation into pressure.

And from pressure into calculation.

---

## **Israel Afflicted with “Political Scabies”**

Perhaps the expression sounds harsh.

But Israel under Netanyahu appears like a state afflicted with a kind of **political scabies**.

Every time it tries to scratch one source of pain, another appears.

It strikes Gaza, and the West Bank emerges.

It pressures Lebanon, and Syria appears.

It confronts Iran, and questions about the home front emerge.

It expands settlements, and sanctions follow.

It defends the government, and leaks emerge.

It tries to restore the image of deterrence, and the questions surrounding October 7 return.

The more dangerous reality is that the state is not facing a single crisis that can simply be closed.

It is facing **a chain of interconnected crises**.

And this is the moment when crisis management itself becomes a crisis.

## **Even You, Brutus!**

Julius Caesar believed that danger came from outside, until among the blades that pierced him he found the face of Brutus.

Netanyahu may not need a single Brutus.

Perhaps dozens of small cracks in the wall are enough.

A security agency demanding accountability.

Families demanding the truth.

Soldiers asking whether the war is worthwhile.

A press that exposes.

An opposition that advances.

A divided right.

Partners raising the ceiling of their demands.

And an outside world that has begun to lose patience with what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza.

Then comes the voter.

And the voter does not strike with a sword.

The voter strikes with a pen.

## **The Election... The Quiet Guillotine**

Netanyahu has long succeeded in turning crises into political fuel.

This is one of his greatest talents.

Every threat becomes an argument for remaining in power.

Every war becomes a justification for postponement.

Every crisis becomes a necessity for unity.

And every opponent becomes a danger to the state.

But the problem is that this game cannot continue forever.

Because at some point, the voter may arrive at the most dangerous question:

**If you are the solution to all these crises, why have the crises grown larger the longer you remain?**

At that point, the question is no longer about security.

It is political.

And according to recent reports, opinion polls have begun to reflect a decline in Netanyahu and his coalition's standing, with increasing difficulty in uniting the right and preventing its votes from fragmenting.

This is not necessarily the end of Netanyahu.

But it is certainly no longer the image of the man who entered elections believing that the competition was for second place.

## **The Kingdom That Does Not Know How to Come Down from the Mountain**

Netanyahu's greatest problem may be that he does not know how to leave the stage.

A man who has spent so many years at the summit eventually becomes a prisoner of the summit itself.

Because he no longer sees descending from it as a political exit.

He sees it as a fall.

And so he continues to fight.

Not only against the Palestinians.

Nor against Iran.

Nor against his opponents in Israel.

But against time itself.

And perhaps time is the only adversary Netanyahu cannot defeat.

Time does not negotiate.

It does not sign truces.

It does not accept deals.

It does not fear a veto.

It simply moves on.

And leaves everything behind.

The victims.

The wars.

The alliances.

The speeches.

The elections.

And the men who believed they were greater than history.

## **Conclusion: Even You, Brutus**

Perhaps Benjamin Netanyahu's kingdom has not fallen yet.

Perhaps the man may emerge from the 2026 election stronger than his opponents expect.

Perhaps he will reorganize the right, forge new alliances, and once again find a way out of the impasse.

But one thing has changed.

The myth itself has become a subject of question.

And that is the most dangerous moment a politician can experience.

Because a politician can withstand the loss of a battle.

He can withstand an opponent.

He can withstand a demonstration.

But it is difficult to withstand the collapse of **the image he has created of himself**.

Netanyahu is no longer facing a single question: What will happen in Gaza?

He is facing a larger one:

**What will happen to the Israel that Netanyahu built?**

The Israel that believed force alone could protect it.

The Israel that made security its identity.

The Israel that treated the Palestinian question as a problem that could be postponed.

The Israel that believed a wall could prevent history from crossing over.

The Israel that discovered on October 7 that history does not knock on doors.

It enters when it chooses.

And that is why the phrase **“Even You, Brutus!”** is not merely a cry in the face of betrayal.

It is the cry of a man beginning to discover that not everyone closest to his kingdom is still willing to die defending his throne.

And perhaps this is the true meaning of collapse:

It is not that the king falls.

It is that one morning he wakes, looks around, and discovers that the kingdom is still standing...

**but no one believes anymore that he is the king.**