Blue tsunami is not about Netanyahu

Israel has a new name for the outcome of the American midterm elections: a “blue tsunami”. Democrats won control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate on 3 November, securing decisive victories. In Israel, the result has prompted deep concern. Many see it as a setback for Donald Trump and, by extension, for Benjamin Netanyahu, who placed all of Israel’s eggs in Trump’s basket.
The two Israeli camps have responded in predictable ways. Netanyahu’s camp is trying to downplay the significance of the results. It presents the coming end of nearly four billion dollars a year in American military aid as a joint decision, planned calmly by two allies. The opposition sees things differently. For them, the American vote is a gift. It is proof that Netanyahu has damaged the Hebrew state, and a useful weapon in the battle to replace him.
Neither camp is reading events honestly. Each reads them in the way that serves its own agenda. Today that agenda has one focus: the fight to form the next government. Because both camps misread what happened, neither will deal with it correctly.
A global shift, not an American accident
What happened in America is part of something much larger. Across the world, public opinion has turned against Israel. The shift is clear in Europe. It is clear in the Global South. It is visible on university campuses, in trade unions, in parliaments and in the streets. Now it has reached the American ballot box.
It is naive to blame all of this on Netanyahu and Trump. Yes, both men played a role. Their shared decisions and adventures deepened Israel’s isolation, and continued the genocide in Gaza that the Biden Administration helped initiate to a great extent. But they did not create it. The deeper cause is Israel itself. More precisely, it is Israel’s Zionist political class, the part that rules and the part that opposes, the overall society, and the apartheid mindset of a large swath of Israelis.
United in substance, divided in style
These aforementioned elements of Israel disagree loudly about many things. They do not disagree about the essentials. All are committed to continuing the occupation. All support settlement. All deny the basic rights of the Palestinian people. All stood behind the genocide in Gaza. All accept the strangulation and control in the West Bank. In their competition for power and zeal, they often try to outbid each other on how harsh they will be.
Their shared platform can be summed up in three points. They do not want to stop settlement, only to organise it. They do not want to end the occupation, only to soften how it looks. And they do not accept a Palestinian state, not even a demilitarised one living beside Israel.
Why the world is turning away
The world is not turning against Israel because Netanyahu abuses power for personal gain. Many leaders abuse power. Few face this kind of global rejection. The world is turning away because of what Israel, the society and the political class both do to Palestinians.
If Israel studied the positions of other countries and societies honestly, it would find the same root every time. That root is occupation and settlement. On top of it sits the genocide that still continues in Gaza, and the campaign of subjugation and apartheid in the West Bank. There is no other reason. Israelis and Americans who blame the crisis on one man are avoiding a harder truth about their state.
Netanyahu’s opponents campaign under the slogan of “change.” But change has only one meaningful definition. It means changing policy toward the Palestinian people and their rights. At its heart is the right to self-determination. If that happens, real change will have taken place. If it does not, the result will simply be a new Knesset speaker and a new prime minister. The faces will change. The system will not.
A warning to the new Congress
The new Democratic majority in Washington brings real opportunity. Congress controls budgets, arms sales and oversight. It can attach conditions. It can demand accountability. It may become the first serious brake on Israeli policy in decades.
But there is a risk. Many Democrats may be tempted to make Netanyahu the main culprit for the genocide in Gaza. That charge is fair. It is also incomplete. Netanyahu did not act alone. He acted with the support of a cabinet, an army, a parliament and a large part of Israeli society. He acted within a Zionist ideology that has sustained occupation and apartheid in Palestine for decades. That society and that ideology are equally culpable.
If Washington treats Netanyahu as the whole problem, it will treat his removal as the whole solution. That would be a serious mistake. A new Israeli government could keep every settlement, every checkpoint and every siege, while offering a friendlier face to American lawmakers. Relations would warm. Palestinians would gain nothing.
Accountability must therefore target policies, not personalities. Congress should ask what Israel does, not who leads it. Does the next government freeze settlement? Does it end the siege of Gaza? Does it accept a Palestinian state? Does it respect international law? These questions apply to any Israeli prime minister, whatever his party.
The real test
The blue tsunami is mainly an American event. Its causes are largely American - high prices, an unpopular president and a costly war with Iran. But it also reflects how far the world has moved on Palestine. Israel’s leaders, in government and in opposition, would be wise to read it that way.
For Palestinians, the lesson is clear. We should welcome every shift that limits Israel’s impunity. We should also refuse any story that reduces our suffering to the sins of one man. The genocide in Gaza is not the product of Netanyahu alone. It is the product of a system. Only when that system changes will anything truly change.