Forever wars: Israel’s cycle of conflict shows no finish line

A significant majority of Israelis, 92 percent, believe the recent memorandum of understanding between Tehran and Washington signifies a surrender of their hard-won victory over a long-standing adversary. This sentiment is so strong that nearly half of those polled indicated Israel should press on with its attacks against Lebanon and the pro-Iran group Hezbollah, irrespective of directives from its primary ally and sponsor, the United States.

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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 been engaged in continuous regional conflicts since the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. These actions include a genocide in Gaza, significant attacks on Iran, clashes with Hezbollah in Lebanon, incursions into Syria, and strikes against the Houthis in Yemen. Within Israel's divided parliament, support for these wars represents a rare point of consensus, even as individual politicians debate the methods of their execution.

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the unprovoked attacks on Tehran as “the most just war in recent decades against the most bitter enemy”.

Former Israeli chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, a potential successor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, described the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran as "the most just war in recent decades against the most bitter enemy." Opposition leader Yair Lapid echoed this support, expressing outrage over Washington's deal with Tehran, which he deemed "one of the most shocking failures of Israel's foreign and security policy, entirely on Netanyahu's account."

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one of the most shocking failures of Israel’s foreign and security policy, and it is entirely on Netanyahu’s account.

Sociologist Daniel Bar-Tal from Tel Aviv University suggests this widespread Israeli reaction is rooted in a political, media, and societal process that connects the 2023 Hamas attack to the Holocaust, a central element of Israeli identity. Consequently, the attack is framed not just as a horrific event but as the latest installment in a long history of Jewish trauma. Bar-Tal notes that this framing is reinforced by the "justness of the national goals, glorification of the Jewish nation, [and] sense of collective victimhood," alongside the "delegitimisation of Palestinian rights."

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merely as a horrific event in its own right, but as the latest chapter in a much older story of Jewish historical trauma