Israel has benefited from successive US administrations’ significant military and diplomatic support since the middle of the 1960s. But never has it enjoyed such unconditional support as it has in the past eight years – under the first and second administrations of President Donald Trump and the administration of President Joe Biden. In response, Israel has begun to publicly pursue its greatest Zionist ambition: expanding state borders in order to create Greater Israel and accelerating the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in their own country.
The Israeli state may appear more powerful than ever and be overly confident in its ability to impose itself over the region, but its current position paradoxically reflects a failed strategy.
The reality is that after nearly eight decades of existence, Israel has failed to achieve legitimacy in the eyes of the region’s peoples and lasting security for itself. Its recent resurgence won’t guarantee either. Because of its settler-colonial logic, which makes its foreign, domestic, and military policies untenable in the long run,
Settler-colonial mentality
Israel has tried to persuade the world and its Jewish citizens that it was “on a land without a people” ever since its founding in 1948. The forefathers of the Israeli state openly discussed “colonization” and settling a land with a hostile native population, despite the success of this narrative and especially among the younger generations of Israelis.
Theodor Herzl, considered the father of modern Zionism, planned to reach out to well-known British colonialist Cecil Rhodes, who led the British colonisation of Southern Africa, for advice on and approval of his plan to colonise Palestine.
In his writings, revisionist Zionist Vladimir Jabotinsky, who founded the far-right Zionist organization Betar in Latvia, made plans to counteract native resistance. He wrote: “In his 1923 essay, The Iron Wall, we read:
“Every native population in the world resists colonists as long as it has the slightest hope of being able to rid itself of the danger of being colonised. The Arabs of Palestine are doing that.
The newly established Israel’s domestic, foreign, and military policies were heavily influenced by this settler-colonial mindset. Today, almost 80 years after the creation of the Israeli state, expansionism and aggressive military posturing continue to define the Israeli regional strategy.
The Israeli aspiration to create a Greater Israel, which includes both occupied Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, as well as parts of contemporary Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, persists despite official rhetoric to end conflict and normalize relations in the region.
That is evident in government actions and public discourse. Settler activists have openly talked about an Israel stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates river. Articles about “reconquering Sinai,” “dismembering Egypt,” and evoking the “dissolution of Jordan” have been written by government advisers. Maps of Greater Israel have been displayed by prime ministers in front of the UN General Assembly.
The idea of Greater Israel has been widely accepted across the Zionist political spectrum, both on the right and on the left. The main differences have been between how and when to advance this vision, as well as whether it calls for the segregation of Palestinians.
Expansionist policies have been implemented in all Israeli governments, from those led by Mapai Labor to those led by Likud. Since the 1949 armistice, Israel has occupied the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, Sinai (twice), southern Lebanon (twice) and now most recently, more parts of southern Syria.
Meanwhile, it has been expanding more quickly to colonize the occupied Palestinian territories. By the time of the invasion of East Jerusalem, the West Bank’s population had reached 250, 000, up from the previous year’s 250, 000. By October 7, 2023, this figure had increased to 503, 732 in the West Bank and 233, 600 in East Jerusalem.
Settlements in Gaza were dismantled in 2005, but plans are being made for recolonisation, as the current Israeli government eyes the full ethnic cleansing of the strip.
There is no significant political force in Israel today that maintains and defends colonization activities beyond the direct use of force. This opinion extends to both politicians and the general public in Israel.
A June 2024 survey , found that 70 percent of Jewish Israelis think settlements either help national security or do not interfere with it, a March 2025 poll showed that 82 percent of Jewish Israelis support the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza.
No real place for peace.
The establishment of a genuine drive for peace has been blocked by the settler-colonial mindset at the state’s core. As a result, successive Israeli governments have continued to pursue war, colonisation and expansion, even when seemingly embracing peace talks.
Israel reclaimed the 1967-occupied territories and accepted the establishment of a separate Palestinian state as a means of resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict in the 1990s. Instead, it merely benefited from the negotiations to advance settler-colonial policies.
Even leaders like Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was hailed as a peacemaker and assassinated for it by a Jewish extremist, did not really envision Israelis and Palestinians living side by side. Plans for a segregation wall on occupied Palestinian land were put forward while the expansion of Jewish settlements continued at a steady pace under his government and during the peace negotiations.
In contrast, Rabin and other Israeli leaders’ efforts to normalize the situation of Israel were primarily focused on addressing the conflict’s root causes. They sought to pacify Palestinian resistance, rather than establish durable peace.
The absence of a peace camp is both at the societal and leadership levels. Israel’s society lacks a genuine grassroots peace movement that recognizes Palestinian rights, despite active social movements, settlers’ coalitions, and the current movement pushing for the continuation of the prisoner exchanges with Hamas.
This is in sharp contrast to other settler-colonial societies, in which there was a push from within to end colonialism. For instance, an anti-colonial movement within France publicly supported the Algerian armed resistance during the French colonization of Algeria. White activists fought alongside the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa during the apartheid era and influenced domestic attitudes.
In Israel, Jewish supporters of Palestinian rights are so few that they are easily ostracised and marginalised, facing death threats and often feeling compelled to leave the country.
The absence of a genuine peace camp reflects settler-colonial Israel’s inherent flaws. It lacks a coherent political plan to address more pressing issues, such as regional coexistence, which necessitates acknowledging the rights of others, particularly the Palestinian people’s national rights. This makes the settler colony incapable of peace.
Overreliance on Western assistance
Settlements have historically relied on outside assistance to keep themselves running. Israel is no different. It has benefited from Western Europe’s and the United States’ extensive support for decades, which has given it a significant strategic advantage.
However, Israel’s reliance on Western support also poses a long-term strategic risk. It makes the country dependent and unable to function like a normal sovereign nation.
Even if their Western allies don’t support them, other nations in the region will continue to exist if their regimes change. That is not the case with Israel, though.
This unlimited and extravagant support for Israel, aimed at maintaining its dominance as the primary regional power, is likely to backfire.
Pressure is being put on other regional players like Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt as a result of the growing power imbalance, not just on Iran. They are starting to believe that the Western efforts to defend Israeli interests are self-infringing.
This situation is likely to push them to increasingly seek alliances beyond the Western bloc to counterbalance this influence. China is a viable alternative because it doesn’t have an Israeli strategic ally.
Beyond Israel’s and its allies’ ability to control them, a gradual opening toward China may alter the political dynamics in the region in the coming years. That will certainly undermine the Israeli plans to establish regional hegemony.
However, Israel is at risk that Western societies may put pressure on their governments to stop supporting it, as well as that Western societies may be putting up resistance from the East.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli genocidal policies have caused a significant change in public opinion globally, including in Europe and North America.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, its prime minister has an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court and Israeli soldiers are facing charges in many countries around the world.
In the process, the Israeli state has notably lost support in the West’s left- and center-right political spectrum.
Although it still manages to maintain support in senior political and military circles in Europe and the United States, this support is becoming increasingly unreliable over time. This uncertainty is further aggravated by the rise of isolationism on the right in the US. If these trends persist, Israel might run out of trustworthy Westerners and lose its financial and military position in the long run.
The settler-colonial state strategy’s limits are becoming more and more apparent. The continued use of settler-colonial policies, characterised by excessive violence, along with the pursuit of regional hegemony, is pushing Israel into an untenable position.
The Israeli government may be attempting to establish itself as an apartheid state and legalize Palestinian subjugation by developing a “New World” model for Palestine and exterminating its population to impose its full colonization.
None of these fantasies are realistic in the Middle East’s historical and geopolitical context. Global pressure is coming to bear. The people of Gaza have been resolutely rejected.
The Palestinian people, like any other country that has endured brutal colonization, will not flee and vanish, nor will they accept living under a colonial apartheid regime.
Israeli leaders may do well to start imagining the very real possibility of sharing land and accepting equal rights, and start preparing the Israeli society for it.
