total-- : --time0:00
'Our fate is in Trump's hands': Haaretz Editor-in-Chief Aluf Benn on Israel's 'unprecedented' wartime dependence on the U.S.

10:41 AM • March 27 2026 IDT

total-- : --time0:00
10:41 AM • March 27 2026 IDT
While at war with Iran and a civilian population under missile attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government "has been working relentlessly towards the goal of making the public sphere of Israel more religious, its governance more autocratic, and the chances of replacing its leader slimmer," Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn said on the Haaretz Podcast.
The push for the anti-democratic judicial coup and the empowerment of ultra-Orthodox autonomy "hasn't changed despite October 7," Benn said. He observed that it had slowed significantly on that date, but today, the massacre and ensuing war has given Netanyahu "even more motivation" to "escape any responsibility and accountability for October" as he looks ahead to the election scheduled for this fall.
In Benn's wide-ranging conversation with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer on the four-week-old war and its impact on Israeli politics and society, Benn pointed out that the effort was not unusual, with many examples of wartime leaders taking advantage of "less public resistance" to consolidate their power.
"Governments at war use it to limit civil liberties. We see it in Russia in the past four years, very visibly, where the last remaining bastions of some sort of opposition to President Putin have been wiped out."









Anthropic’s lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk.
Conflicting messaging from Washington, including statements by Donald Trump, has added to the uncertainty surrounding the prospects for a ceasefire.
Delhi and Moscow are deepening their energy cooperation, with both sides agreeing to prepare for Russia to resume direct sales of liquefied natural gas.
The IDF's Southern Command continues operations to destroy terror infrastructure and remove threats in the Gaza Strip, killing over 60 Hamas terrorists last month.