Attack, not defend: Israel's rock-solid security consensus replaces passive 'stability' - opinion

As Israel enters a 100-day election campaign, the focus is sharply on government accountability for the October 7 Hamas attack and wartime concessions made to the ultra-Orthodox public. However, the election is not centered on traditional foreign and defense policy issues, as a broad consensus now exists among Israelis on these matters.

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Israel will attack, not defend. It will initiate, not respond. It will hunt down its enemies, not be hounded by them.

Recent years of conflict have instilled a crucial lesson: the necessity of maintaining a proactive defense posture, including strategic superiority against adversaries near and far. Consequently, Israel is moving away from the containment policies of recent decades, which prioritized restraint and diplomacy. This shift acknowledges that such an approach allowed enemies to develop attack capabilities under the guise of diplomatic breathing room, a strategy that ultimately proved disastrous.

Israel now understands the need for fierce and overwhelming actions against enemy strongholds across the region. The approach is to "attack, not defend," to "initiate, not respond," and to "hunt down its enemies, not be hounded by them." This is complemented by a buffer-zone military strategy, involving long-term IDF control over borders in areas dominated by Islamist-jihadist organizations. Israelis believe that neighbors will only seek true reconciliation when Jerusalem is strong, and any future peace treaties, like the Abraham Accords, should be built on robust defense partnerships rather than mere goodwill.

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Israelis also realize that their neighbors will seek true reconciliation only when Jerusalem is strong.

Notably, opposition leaders challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are not presenting significantly different foreign and defense policies. Figures like Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Benny Gantz, and Yair Lapid would likely adopt a similar stance, compelled to confront Iran and its proxies with the same resolve as Netanyahu. They would also face similar international pressures regarding these issues.

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Additional Abraham Accord-style peace treaties are possible and desirable, but these will be based on muscular defense partnerships, not mushy notions of goodwill.