Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on April 9, 2026. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP]
Israel is always just one defeat away from catastrophe. The fact that it is an island of 10 million people in a sea of Arabs and other Muslims demands that it be constantly vigilant, ready to fight.
The Jewish state was established in the shadow of the Holocaust, with its leaders declaring “Never Again” would the nation be led silently toward death. Israel endured and bloomed, despite unceasing tensions with the Palestinians, who were displaced from their land, despite the hostility of neighboring nations. The slaughter perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023, was the greatest defeat that Israel suffered after its founding, triggering a series of clashes in which the country proved its military, technological and operational superiority. This great power, though, is leading Israel and its people into mortal danger.
The reminder of the existential threat prompted by Hamas’ attack, the wave of support for Israel that followed (mainly in the West but elsewhere, too), the dynamic alliance with the United States, the fact that the prime minister faces conviction on corruption charges once the conflicts end, and that his government depends on the support of extreme nationalist forces, all contribute to a military advance which includes the devastation of Gaza and today’s hammering of Lebanon. With Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was completely unleashed.
Aside from the military campaigns that it launched, it is encouraging Jewish settlers to chase Palestinians from their ancient homes in the West Bank.
Furthermore, it passed a law allowing for the death penalty for Palestinians, though not for Jews convicted of similar crimes. This conflict without limits will not leave room for peaceful coexistence in the future – neither between Jews and Palestinians, nor between Israel and its neighbors. Understandable existential fear has led to a dangerous arrogance. The government’s religious ultranationalists ought to remember that their God would often punish “His people” with defeats and exile, to bring them back to the right way.
Israel today appears to be abandoning the principles of mercy and kindness which sustained the Jewish people greatly over their 2,000 years without a home. But has any nation ever survived war without end?