In recent years, Israeli author and commentator Micah Goodman has come to be viewed by in-the-know American Jews as something of a symbolic stand-in for Israeli public opinion, a reliable translator of the views of Israeli centrists and the center-right to diaspora audiences. 

This makes the fact that Goodman is now encouraging Israel to agree to a cease-fire-and-hostage deal significant; he spent a good chunk of the war arguing against such a deal. “Today, when a deal would not halt the maneuver, as it has already been completed, the strategic cost of the deal is much lower,” Goodman wrote in Israel Hayom last week. “At this juncture, a deal allows for the achievement of all war objectives.” 

On a quick trip to Washington this week for the Middle East-America Dialogue (MEAD) Summit, Goodman told Jewish Insider in an interview that he’s working out for himself a new understanding of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. 

“Here’s the massive shift I think we’re all going through. We’re starting to understand that this war in Gaza is not the last episode of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it’s the first episode of the Israeli-Iran war,” said Goodman. That, in part, is why he thinks Israel should accept a deal: It’s a way for the exhausted Israel Defense Forces to take a break in what he thinks will be a larger and longer war ahead.

“We can’t move from Gaza to Lebanon directly. We have to take a break. So the most effective mechanism to take a break is a deal. It’s the most moral mechanism to take a break,” said Goodman. “This is the right idea for this time. It wasn’t true for the winter. It might not be true next winter. But this is the idea of this moment.”

For years, Goodman has been arguing about the need to “shrink the conflict,” suggesting Israel should become less involved in Palestinian affairs and instead “boost Palestinian sovereignty outside the context of a final status agreement,” as he wrote in The Atlantic in 2021. The goal, Goodman has argued, is for Israel to scale back its control over Palestinians and for Palestinians to gain some sovereignty before a Palestinian state is created. 

In Washington, Goodman continued to make a similar argument. But after the Oct. 7 attacks and the resulting war, Goodman now puts Iran at the center of his message. 

“I don’t think we can end the conflict, but we definitely have to shrink it for one reason: because we have to defeat Iran,” said Goodman. 

This is a new position for Goodman, and he’s still figuring out exactly what he thinks of it. His evolving worldview on Iran starts with a recognition, in his view, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who has been talking about the Iranian threat for many years — was right to do so. But what makes it tricky, Goodman added, is that he thinks Netanyahu is not the right leader to defeat Iran. 

“The paradox of Netanyahu is Netanyahu saw this all,” said Goodman. “But if you know you’re fighting Iran, how can you create political dependency on the ultra-Orthodox and keep our army small? If you’re fighting Iran, how can you create political dependency on Itamar Ben-Gvir and, as a result, sabotage our ability to keep Western civilization behind us?”

Goodman, a skilled public speaker, was animated as he workshopped a new line of thinking — a new worldview even — as it pertains to Iran. 

“I think the most important question that has to guide us when we rebuild Israel and reinvent Israel is the following. How does Israel look, the Israel that needs to defeat Iran? This is our role now in history, to defeat Iran,” he said. “When it’s us versus Palestinians, it’s Goliath and David. But if it’s us versus Iran, maybe we’re David again. It’s a whole new narrative.” 

Within that narrative, within the new conception of Israel that Goodman thinks is needed for the long-shot goal of defeating Iran, is a plea for unity. And this is why he thinks Netanyahu cannot lead Israel into that war. 

“Now we’re entering the war with Israel versus Iran. Who do we have to be in order to win? What does the best version of ourselves look like, and how do we build the unity that we need in order to defeat Iran?” asked Goodman. “We need Bibi’s narrative in order to overcome Bibi’s politics.”