At first glance, the Gaza war looks like a military campaign between Israel and Hamas. But beneath the headlines lies another story: how Israeli domestic politics — coalition pressures, judicial reform battles, ultra-Orthodox exemptions, and leadership struggles — have shaped the war’s trajectory from the beginning. In this episode of Global Risk Profile, we explore: * Why Israel went through five elections in four years before the war. *How judicial reform protests exposed deep fractures inside Israeli society. * The role of coalition politics and ultra-Orthodox exemptions in sustaining or undermining unity. * Why the war has dragged on, despite calls for a swift, decisive victory. * What outside voices — from U.S. leaders to Israeli commentators across the spectrum — reveal about the dilemmas facing Israel today. * And the broader lesson: how domestic politics everywhere shapes foreign policy, for better or worse. This is not about heroes or villains. It’s about the hard reality of leadership under pressure — and the choices that will be judged by history.