Not since the Roman conquest of the Middle East has any power imposed itself so thoroughly through military dominance as Israel has in the past three years. It has, during that period, achieved sweeping regional hegemony over virtually all of its neighbors. 

This is the realization of a decades-old objective Israeli leaders have long coveted, but never dared imagine. Even amidst multi-state wars with its Arab frontline neighbors in 1956 and 1973, it only sought limited objectives (the 1948 and 1967 wars may be seen as exceptions).

After multiple attacks over the past year on Iran and its regional Axis of Resistance, Israel has in effect redrawn the geo-strategic map. When Syrian rebels toppled Bashar al Assad and cut off Iranian weapons transshipments to Hezbollah, Israel exploited this opportunity to degrade the latter through repeated attacks against it. First, it severely wounded thousands of Hezbollah’s fighters through pager mass explosions. Then it wiped out its long-time leader and an icon of resistance, Hassan Nasrallah, along with his named successor and others in senior leadership. More recently, it invaded Lebanon and now occupies a considerable portion of the south. In addition, the IDF has eradicated many of the villages and destroyed much of the civilian infrastructure there, rendering it virtually uninhabitable. Hezbollah seems, at least for the time being, to be a spent force.

Unlike Israel’s past invasions of Lebanon and its 20-year (1982-2002) occupation of Hezbollah’s southern strongholds, which were met with fierce resistance, its more recent incursion has generated little conflict. 

The War Against Hezbollah and Iran

The more recent 12-day war against Iran which wiped out much of the Revolutionary Guard senior command, along with a number of its leading nuclear scientists, significantly reduced that country’s capabilities as well. Furthermore, Israel’s obliteration of the country’s air defenses, and thorough infiltration of its security apparatus to mount devastating attacks on some of its most valuable military assets, exposed both Iran’s weaknesses and Israel’s military dominance. Its chief regional rival was transformed from a significant threat to an also-ran in a matter of weeks.

Meanwhile, the Syrian uprising eliminated another capable Israeli foe—its long-time dictator and firm Iranian ally, al-Assad. In one swift stroke, Iran’s weapons distribution system to its regional proxies was eliminated. Through a series of opportune developments, some created by Israel and others dropped in its lap, the elimination of Hezbollah, Assad and Iran, has made Israel the dominant hegemon.  

It has now imposed the latter-day equivalent of the Pax Romana. Of course, this Pax Israeliana is not a “peace” at all. Rather it is a brutal imposition of colonial power on a network of captive, subdued peoples. In historian Flavius Josephus’ terms it is Bellum Iudaicum (a “Judean War”).

Israel’s campaign for geo-strategic dominance follows a classic pattern of European colonization—using overwhelming military force combined with a determination to impose control over a colonized people. This also includes mass violence amounting to genocide and a willingness to ethnically cleanse restive populations. In this pattern, the colonizers also ruthlessly appropriate natural resources such as land, water, and natural resources for their own gain; the wealth is stolen from the victims and transferred to the foreign occupier. Another aspect of European colonialism is the reckless impunity with which the colonizer pursues its interests. It brooks no criticism or resistance to its absolute power.

October 7 and the Campaign to Dismantle Hamas

Israel’s scorched earth response to Hamas’ October 7 attack has reduced the latter to a ragged insurgent force. Its entire senior command was wiped out. Recently, Israel launched a failed assassination attempt against its sole remaining senior leader, Khaled Meshal. Some 9,000 of an estimated 30,000 fighters have been killed. What is even more devastating is the siege that has been imposed for the past two years. Now, 600,000 Gazans face famine and hundreds are dying of starvation, especially the most vulnerable: children.

Despite mass protests on Israeli streets led by the families of Israeli hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a devastating invasion of Gaza City, where 800,000 Palestinians took shelter.  He wages war relentlessly. As long as it continues, he is politically impregnable. 

More recently, his defense minister proposed establishing concentration camps (what he calls a “humanitarian city”) into which 600,000 Gazans would be herded, “voluntarily” of course. Once imprisoned, they would remain confined there indefinitely. Both Israeli and U.S. leaders are now advocating explicitly for the forced mass expulsion of much of Gaza’s population. 

We are fast approaching the equivalent of Hitler’s Final Solution to the Jewish Problem. Even the use of mass extermination in camps like Auschwitz is mirrored by estimates that 25% of Gaza’s overall population may have been murdered by Israeli carpet bombing, which has also eradicated almost all of its homes, schools, hospitals and other vital infrastructure. This figure also includes deaths from accompanying impacts of the war including starvation, disease, lack of medical care, and unrecovered bodies.

“… The world faces the prospect of almost a quarter of Gaza’s 2 million population—close to half- a million human beings—dying within a year,” says Professor Devi Sridhar, Chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh.

Ethnic Cleansing

For decades, Hamas has been the most persistent and capable enemy Israel has faced. Its geographical proximity and steadfastness in confronting its colonial occupier made it an implacable foe. It alone raised the banner of Palestinian resistance. It has conducted numerous successful attacks on Israeli forces within Gaza and Israel itself.

Though Hamas is by no means a spent force, its capabilities have been severely reduced and Israel and much of the world envision no future role for it in Gaza. However, Netanyahu has offered no substitute plan for governance of Gaza, leaving Hamas as the only viable option.

Yet, Israel isn’t satisfied with this outcome. It foresees no Palestinian population remaining in Gaza. Its wild-eyed extremists relish the prospect of a new Greater Israel outpost there, filled with settlements, or as President Trump put it: a “Riviera of the Middle East.”  

Gaza’s ethnic cleansing will reverse the old Zionist saying: a people without a land for a land without its people.

Through sweeping violence and mass expulsions, the settler colonists have depopulated scores of West Bank Palestinian villages. Thousands have been displaced and their homes and property stolen by Israelis. The latter undoubtedly have a plan to reduce or eliminate the Palestinian presence there as soon as global anger subsides over the Gaza genocide.

There is only one Arab group which has not been cowed by Israeli force: the Houthis in Yemen.  Though their distance from Israel reduces their capability to inflict damage, they remain a capable adversary: unbowed and unbeaten despite repeated attacks by Israel on their military leadership and weapons sites.

How Empires Fall: Rome, Nazi Germany, and Israel

While Netanyahu and his messianist-fanatical allies revel in their strategic achievements, history offers a corrective. Rome’s empire eventually fell. It imploded under the weight of greed, economic disruption, territorial overextension, and decline of its military capabilities. Hitler’s dream of a Thousand Year Reich collapsed in twelve years, after he too was swept up in a grandiose vision of Aryan supremacy. Empires rise and fall. Nothing is forever. 

The fever dream of the most extreme elements of Israeli society calls for a return to some imagined ancient greatness: The Kingdoms of David and Solomon in the eras of the First and Second Temple; the Hasmonean dynasty of the Maccabees which overthrew Greek rule; and the grandeur of Herod’s era. Ultimately, the true believers are seized by a messianic fervor in which a return to this so-called ancient historical greatness will summon ultimate redemption. Such are Zionist dreams of an eternal homeland basking in divine favor.

However, no enemy, no matter how weakened, can be entirely eliminated. The tools historically employed by the more successful colonial powers to obtain the tacit consent of the colonized—diplomacy and collaboration—have been rejected by Israel. Compromise only shows weakness, says the triumphalist vision of colonial power and dominance.

This can succeed as long as Israel’s enemies are beaten down and—critically—its allies maintain support for its raging ambition. Thus far, its chief ally, the United States, has stood firm providing $20 billion in weapons to enable the genocide.  

But world opinion is slowly turning against it and the slaughter it has perpetrated. Support for Israel, historically far exceeding the support for Palestinians, is now reversed. The latest US polls show, for the first time ever, more support for the latter than for the former. A report by Gallup research firm shows that 60% of Americans disapprove of the Israeli action in Gaza, with only 32% supporting it. The support for Gaza increased ever since September 2024. A majority of Americans consider Gaza a genocide. A plurality support cutting military aid. These are unprecedented developments previously considered taboo in U.S. politics, thanks to the massive political impact of the Israel lobby. That taboo has been broken.

It is not a question of if Israel’s colonial dominance will decline, but when. An empire built on cohesion, unity, shared prosperity, technological innovation, and collaboration can survive over long historical periods. But a society riven by dissent, dysfunction, corruption, wealth inequities, and mass violence, will always be unstable and prone to dissolution.

Israel has made fateful errors in declaring its enemies defeated. You cannot eliminate an enemy solely by brute force. The urge to resist and rebel has historically always been an animating force in human affairs. Eventually, either Israel declines through its own internal dysfunction; or its enemies regain their power and renew their challenge.  The tide will inevitably turn. Its colonial power and dominance will dissipate. At that point, its hubris will be its ultimate downfall.