Trump’s Iran War Stuck After Midterm Blow
A U.S. president's unpopular war meets a midterm rebuke, while Israel's election leaves its leader weakened but still scheming to hold power.
President Donald Trump's war with Iran has become deeply unpopular, and the midterm election results have made that plain, narrowing his options as he tries to wind down a conflict he started [1]. The losses have left him with fewer paths to end the fighting on his own terms [1].
The political blow came alongside a turbulent stretch for Israel, where four elections in 10 days left the country weakened at home and abroad, according to the Jerusalem Post [2]. Votes in Serbia and Brazil put key ties at risk, Democrats took the U.S. Congress, and Israel slid into a coalition deadlock [2].
Israel's own election produced a strange result: a win that contains a loss, and a loss that contains a win [3]. Before Tuesday, Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition held 68 of the Knesset's 120 seats; that number has now fallen to 53, far short of the 61 needed for a majority [3]. By any measure, that is a loss [3].
But the opposition cannot win unless it joins forces with Arab parties [3]. Netanyahu knows this, and he will use every trick to remain prime minister, having led Israel for more than 19 of the past 30 years [3]. The lesson is sharp and clear, both for Israel and for those fighting nationalist populists around the world: to stop them, you cannot play by gentlemen's rules [3].
The upheaval in Washington also rattled allies and markets. Japan's top trading house executives warned that the U.S. midterm elections have created uncertainty for global business, saying the results make it harder to predict American policy on trade and investment [4]. The heads of the country's major trading companies, known as sogo shosha — large firms that buy, sell and invest across energy, metals, food and other sectors — said they are watching Washington closely before making decisions on U.S. projects [4]. They said the divided political outcome could slow decisions on trade rules and spending, and they urged companies to prepare for sudden shifts in policy [4]. Demand in the U.S. remains solid for now, they added, but cautioned that politics could weigh on confidence in the months ahead [4].