Forever wars: Israel’s cycle of conflict shows no finish line
Less than a week after the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Tehran and Washington brought the stuttering, three-month-long US-Israel war on Iran to
Less than a week after the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Tehran and Washington brought the stuttering, three-month-long US-Israel war on Iran to a close – for now – the verdict of Washington’s principal ally, Israel, was in. According to a recent poll, an overwhelming 92 percent of Israelis felt the US has signed away their victory over a decades-old enemy, with almost half of those polled saying Israel should continue its attacks on Lebanon and the pro-Iran group Hezbollah, irrespective of the urgings of Washington, its principal ally and sponsor. Israel has spent the years since the surprise Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, in Israel, which killed 1,139 people, fighting continuous wars across the region. It has committed a genocide in Gaza, killing more than 73,000 Palestinians and razing large swaths of the territory to the ground. It has attacked Iran twice, killed thousands in Lebanon while fighting Iran ally Hezbollah, launched multiple ground incursions into Syria, and launched sporadic strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, also allies of Tehran. Within Israel’s fractious parliament, support for the country’s wars offers one of the few points of consensus, even if individual politicians disagree on how they are prosecuted. Going into the war on Iran, Israel’s former chief of staff and one of the contenders to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gadi Eisenkot, did not hold back.
Speaking during an interview in early March, shortly after the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran began, he described the unprovoked attacks on Tehran as “the most just war in recent decades against the most bitter enemy”. Opposition leader Yair Lapid was equally supportive of the attacks, with his enthusiasm for renewed conflict against Iran and Hezbollah only eclipsed by his anger following Washington’s decision to make a deal with Tehran. He described the US decision as “one of the most shocking failures of Israel’s foreign and security policy, and it is entirely on Netanyahu’s account”. Israeli sociologist Daniel Bar-Tal from Tel Aviv University said little of this reaction in Israel is surprising. It was, he said, the outcome of a process across Israeli politics, media, and society that linked the Hamas 2023 attack with the “central anchor” of Israeli identity: the Holocaust. In this light, the attack was framed not “merely as a horrific event in its own right, but as the latest chapter in a much older story of Jewish historical trauma”. Bar-Tal added that the “justness of the national goals, glorification of the Jewish nation, [and] sense of collective victimhood”, as well as “the delegitimisation of Palestinians”, were ingrained into the consciousness of most Israelis, and therefore played a role in the support behind Israel’s wars.
The BriefWire