Since the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, Israel has dealt a series of blows to its most dangerous regional rivals. It has dismantled Hamas in Gaza, inflicted heavy damage on the Shiite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon, and successfully repelled Tehran’s missile attack, unleashing its own retaliation.

Israel’s military operations — especially its conduct of the war in Gaza, where local authorities say more than 40,000 Palestinians have died — have hurt the country’s international standing, a Wall Street Journal analysis said. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for the prime minister and former defense minister.

But Israel’s leaders say the military gains offset international backlash and argue the country’s stronger strategic position, opening the door to diplomatic gains in the future as Arab countries seek partners to counter Iran’s power.

Current and former Israeli officials are pushing for more aggressive initiatives to build an Israeli, American and moderate Arab alliance that includes Saudi Arabia and aims to check Iran’s influence. The re-election of Donald Trump, who turned against Iran in his first term and returns to the presidency next month, has raised hopes for such an alliance, analysts say.

The Gaza war started a series of events that helped lay the groundwork, said Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. Israel has weakened Iran by largely overthrowing its military allies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

These successes triggered the recent fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, a key ally of Tehran. Israel has also decimated Iran’s air defenses in two airstrikes, leaving Tehran vulnerable to any future confrontation.

“We expect that our determination and strength will lead to more regional stability,” Danon said.

Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, said that because Israel is on the front lines and has shown its military prowess, “many more countries are realizing that we have to work together.” Deepening relations, including normalization with Saudi Arabia, would further isolate Iran, he said.

The two countries were close to such an agreement before the war, but Riyadh has since become sharply critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza. However, he has maintained his pre-war position that normalization is possible if Israel agrees to resolve the Palestinian state issue.

Israelis overwhelmingly oppose a Palestinian state now, but Israel could give the Palestinians a clear road map to self-rule in Gaza and the West Bank. It is unclear whether Saudi Arabia would accept such a compromise.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would struggle to pass such a decision with his current coalition, analysts say, because it relies on far-right parties that want to strengthen rather than loosen Israeli control over the Palestinian territories. Netanyahu himself has stressed since the war began that he would oppose the creation of a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu recently told the Wall Street Journal that there is hope for a rapprochement with Saudi Arabia once Israel secures a deal to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and end the war.

Not everyone agrees that Israel’s military achievements have led to a security regime in the region, and there is a risk that the compromise of the war will prove costly for Israel.

The widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip and the mounting death toll have sown the seeds for future conflicts between Israel and its neighbors, said Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the Gulf Arab Institute.

Israel’s military victories, Ibish added, have created a situation in which it will need more soldiers to guard its borders with Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip – as well as the West Bank.

“It’s really surrounded by enemies who have a lot more reason to be its enemies today than they did on October 7,” he said.

Across the Middle East and in many developing countries, meeting with Israeli leaders is taboo, foreclosing any future cooperation, said William Wechsler, senior director of Middle East programs at the Atlantic Council.

It is not the first diplomatic blow for Israel. Itamar Rabinovich, Israel’s former ambassador to the US and adviser to several prime ministers, believes the climate will moderate. Israel receives that criticism today, he said, but it will diminish over time once the war is over.

“Israel has tremendous support from the US not just because of the need to respond to an attack by Hamas or Hezbollah, but because of the sense that important US interests are at stake,” Rabinovitch said.

The current conflict in the Middle East, for example, has wider implications as Iran develops closer ties with Russia, which in turn is close to countries that compete with the US and its allies, Rabinowitz explained. “It is not just a regional conflict, but a global conflict, against the coalition of Russia, China and North Korea.”

From the beginning of the war, one of the key questions for Israel in weighing the challenges of the war was whether it would succeed in pursuing its military goals before the diplomatic consequences became overwhelming, said Micah Goodman, an Israeli author and philosopher.

“We needed to restore deterrence — and to restore deterrence, we had to do things that reduced our legitimacy,” Goodman said. But overall, he added, “I think Israel has succeeded.”