An unrestrained Israel is reshaping the Middle East
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. TEN years and a lifetime ago, Binyamin Netanyahu offered a stark vision of the future. Israel’s prime minister told a parliamentary committee that there could never be peace with the Palestinians.
“I’m asked if we will forever live by the sword," he said. “Yes." His words were a source of controversy, not least among the leaders of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), who did not think the government should give up on diplomacy. Yet today Mr Netanyahu’s vision is an almost unquestioned reality.
It has remained so even though Israel has reversed the sense of peril it felt immediately after Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, went on a rampage across southern Israel on October 7th 2023, killing more than 1,100 people and kidnapping 250 more. Israel’s 15-month assault on Gaza has battered Hamas; it can no longer mount a serious attack. Hizbullah, a Shia militia in Lebanon, is also reeling after Israel pummelled it, too.
In addition, the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s dictator, has cut Hizbullah’s main supply line to Iran. The “ring of fire" around Israel that Iran had created by funding such militias has burned down to embers. And Israel has withstood Iranian missile attacks and smashed Iranian air defences in retaliation.
In years past, Israel might have been content to stop there. But its current leaders favour an unbridled assertion of power, some for pragmatic reasons, others for ideological ones. They are seizing territory beyond their borders, advocating further strikes on Iran and contemplating the outright annexation of Palestinian land.
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