Hot Take: Escalating violence may benefit Netanyahu politically

A week ago, it looked like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might, after four indecisive elections and facing an ongoing corruption trial, finally be on the way out. The eruption of violence between Israel and the Palestinians could change that.

Brief timeout. Until running street violence in Jerusalem crescendoed into Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli aerial attacks in Gaza, it had seemed likely that Israel was going to get a new government in the coming days, unified only in its opposition to Netanyahu. The path seemed to pass through Mansour Abbas, who leads the United Arab List (Ra’am), which was going to be the final piece of a coalition of anti-Netanyahu parties. Center-left "There is a Future" (Yesh Atid) party leader Yair Lapid, who has the current mandate to form the next government, put Abbas on speed dial.

Amid the crisis, though, Abbas on Monday called a timeout on negotiations. That doesn’t mean the coalition is finished. On Wednesday, at Lapid’s request, Abbas said that he had "no choice but to return to political negotiations to form a government after the fire dies down."