After his visit to the White House on Tuesday, February 4, Benjamin Netanyahu is back on track. The Israeli prime minister's position has never been stronger since the formation of his coalition in December 2022, which has always been in the minority in the polls. The sequence of events that began on January 19, when the ceasefire in Gaza came into effect, leading to the release of 10 Israeli hostages and the emergence of an unprecedented momentum in public opinion in favor of a definitive end to the war, could have destabilized Netanyahu. He feared that a return to calm could lead to the resignation of his far-right partners and the opening of an inquiry into the October 7 fiasco, for which he would bear the brunt.

But Donald Trump's announcement of his grand design for Gaza – the expulsion of all its inhabitants and the takeover of the territory by the United States – had three concrete effects, and they were all very beneficial for the Israeli leader. It undermined the ceasefire that Netanyahu had only reluctantly agreed to under pressure from Washington, strengthened a weakened coalition, and normalized the idea of massive ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.

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