Professor Moshe Cohen-Eliyahu addressed the US election on Tuesday, explaining why he believes Netanyahu is the best choice for the incoming administration.
"October 7 for Netanyahu was like Pearl Harbor for Roosevelt," the professor said. "Netanyahu changed the disc and managed to turn the bowl upside down on all fronts, and to lead to stunning achievements that bring us closer to absolute victory. He succeeded in bringing the greatest superpower in the world to fight together with us against the greatest enemy of the Jewish people, the ayatollahs in Iran."
Cohen-Eliya framed the war in terms of what the French historian Fernand Braudel called "the long duration" --- the deep structures that shape history over decades and centuries, not just immediate events. "In the view of 'the long duration,' Israel needs to finish the war and lead to absolute victory and the collapse of the Iranian regime," he said. "In terms of 'the long duration,' Israel and the United States are not only dealing with the immediate military threat from Iran, but with a geopolitical structure that has been shaped over decades: the Iranian aspiration for regional hegemony, the use of proxy organizations to surround Israel in a ring of fire, and the attempt to undermine the regional order through terror, missiles and the pursuit of nuclear weapons."
The professor continued: "From Braudel's point of view, the important historical question is not how many nuclear facilities were destroyed, how many commanders were eliminated or how many weapons systems were damaged, but whether the war will bring about a deep and lasting change in the balance of power in the Middle East. Will the regional structure through which Iran projected its power over Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen be broken? Will a new regional order be created, at whose center is security and economic cooperation between Israel, the United States and the moderate Arab states? And will this change be stable enough to allow Israel to live in security even in fifty and a hundred years?"
"Historical victory is not measured only by defeating the enemy on the battlefield, but by the ability to turn military achievements into structural change that will survive even after the current leaders leave the stage," he said.
"And therefore Trump needs Netanyahu with him to lead to historical victory over Iran and its offshoots, and to change the strategic balance of power in the Middle East for generations."
"Netanyahu has a deep historical vision and he understands very well the structure of the new strategic power he is building in the Middle East. After all, he is the son of a historian," the professor concluded. "Eisenkot may be a nice person, but Israel does not need niceness, but determination, leadership and staying power. And that's what the 2026 elections are about."
