With Trump’s Iran Deal, the October 7 Wars Are Over. Israel Really Has No Idea What to Do Next

The Post-October 7 Wars, Which Came with Expectations and Promises of ‘Total Victory,’ Are Over, as Are Their Illusions

Europeans are masters of a well-practiced art of balance: denounce with emphasis whatever comes from Tel Aviv or Washington, and wrap Tehran in the reassuring mists of “dialogue" and “de-escalation." Donald Trump greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, April 7, 2025. — The Middle East has certainly changed, and many of Israel’s enemies are indeed weakened. But many of the changes — with Iran’s emboldening and Trump’s imposed restrictions on Israel most emphatically at the forefront — are not in Israel’s favor.

Two days after the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that “we are going to change the Middle East.”

That phrase was used by Netanyahu repeatedly over the next two and a half years, as Israel went to war against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.

“We turned Israel into a regional power that deters and defeats its enemies,” Netanyahu boasted in March, at the height of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran.

At the time, the Iran war looked like the successful culmination of Israel’s military response to October 7. It had delivered painful blows to Hamas and Hezbollah, and was now fighting alongside the most powerful military in history to topple the Iranian regime and permanently end the threat posed by the Iranian axis.

Published originally on June 15, 2026.

Read the full article at the Times of Israel.

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Lazar Berman

Lazar Berman is the diplomatic correspondent at the Times of Israel, where he also covers Christian Affairs. He holds an M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University and taught at Salahuddin University in Iraqi Kurdistan. Berman is a reserve captain in the IDF’s Commando Brigade and served in a Bedouin unit during his active service.