Hold on to imagination like a rope thrown when sinking in quicksand

Nadav Eyal argues in an opinion column that the 2026 election campaign is ignoring the national trauma of October 7, and that politics focuses on blame instead of a vision for the future. He accuses Netanyahu of perpetuating a sense of threat and calls for holding on to imagination.

Nadav Eyal argues in an opinion column that the 2026 election campaign in Israel is being conducted while ignoring the deep national trauma following the October 7 massacre and the war. According to him, Israeli politics focuses on casting blame rather than on vision. Eyal describes a state of collective post-trauma that impairs the ability to imagine a better future, and accuses Prime Minister Netanyahu of perpetuating a sense of threat. He quotes 'senior officers' who told him that the new normal is war. Eyal calls for holding on to imagination as a lifeline, drawing a comparison to Sadat's visit in 1977, and notes that the elections are a struggle over the ability to imagine a better future.