This may not be the conclusion Israel imagined when it launched its campaign in Gaza. Not all the hostage bodies are home. Hamas is bruised, but not broken. The region remains volatile. Yet even as combat continues, the United Nations Security Council, backed by an American administration long assumed to be ‘pro-Israel’, yesterday endorsed a resolution that places an armed international force in Gaza, sketches a vague pathway to Palestinian statehood, and outlines a governing arrangement in which neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority is central.

For Israel this is a moment of profound uncertainty – a reminder that military operations, however successful, do not automatically dictate the shape of the political landscape that follows.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s restrained e

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