{"id":3316,"date":"2026-03-08T19:05:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/?p=3316"},"modified":"2026-03-08T19:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:07:07","slug":"how-israels-domestic-crises-and-netanyahus-aim-to-project-power-are-reshaping-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/how-israels-domestic-crises-and-netanyahus-aim-to-project-power-are-reshaping-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"How Israel\u2019s domestic crises and Netanyahu\u2019s aim to project power are reshaping the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Spyros A. Sofos, Assistant Professor in Global Humanities, Simon Fraser University<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Israel\u2019s recent strikes on Iranian territory have been widely framed as an act of deterrence<\/a> or yet another episode in a protracted regional rivalry. <\/p>\n

Such interpretations overlook the deeper motivations behind Israel\u2019s actions. <\/p>\n

As a global humanities scholar who specializes in Middle Eastern politics, I believe the world is watching the convergence of a domestic political crisis and a profound strategic shift as Israel evolves into a more aggressive entity in a fragmented international order.<\/p>\n

Political survival<\/h2>\n

At the centre of Israel\u2019s current strategic turn lies Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu \u2014 a beleaguered leader fighting for political survival, but also considered a calculating, opportunistic operator with a particular vision of the Middle East.<\/p>\n

At home, Netanyahu, confronting an unprecedented convergence of challenges \u2014 multiple corruption indictments<\/a>, mass protests against what many consider a self-serving judicial overhaul<\/a> and a fragile governing coalition<\/a> \u2014 has leaned into military escalation as both a defensive reflex and a political instrument. He\u2019s seemingly deploying it to both mute dissent at home and assert control abroad.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A<\/div>
\n Israelis opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s judicial overhaul plan set up bonfires and block a highway during a protest in March 2023.<\/span>
\n (AP Photo\/Ohad Zwigenberg)<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Netanyahu\u2019s ambitions appear to extend beyond his immediate political survival. He seems to be striving for a legacy-defining \u201c1967 moment\u201d \u2014 a transformative reordering of the regional landscape in the Middle East<\/a> that sidelines the Palestinian issue and entrenches Israeli supremacy. <\/p>\n

This dual imperative \u2014 domestic survival and amassing power in the region \u2014 likely shapes Netanyahu\u2019s recent actions, including the strike on Iran, the expanded occupation of Syrian territory<\/a>, the October 2024 attack on Lebanon<\/a> and the ongoing assaults on Gaza and the West Bank.<\/p>\n

By describing each military campaign as a reluctant necessity<\/a> \u2014 forced upon him by Iran, Hamas or even his coalition hardliners \u2014 Netanyahu maintains public support as he consolidates power. His government has used war-time conditions to suppress public protest, push forward its radical constitutional agenda<\/a> and advance his geopolitical vision. <\/p>\n

The result is a volatile but calculated strategy that is likely to mark Netanyahu\u2019s tenure, though with significant repercussions for regional stability.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Surfers<\/div>
\n Surfers take shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian strikes at the Haifa beachfront in Israel on June 24, 2025.<\/span>
\n (AP Photo\/Baz Ratner)<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Israel\u2019s grand strategy<\/h2>\n

While Netanyahu\u2019s actions could serve his immediate political ends, they also reflect a longer-term shift in Israeli grand strategy. Following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, Israel intensified a long-standing pattern of pre-emptive strikes and campaigns<\/a> to neutralize its adversaries. This strategy has been pursued at an unprecedented scale in Gaza, but often without a clearly articulated political endgame.<\/p>\n

This pattern echoes a regional policy doctrine Netanyahu laid out in his 1993 book A Place Among the Nations<\/a><\/em> when he asserted \u201cthe only peace that will endure in the region is the peace of deterrence.\u201d<\/p>\n

This policy advocates the projection of overwhelming Israeli power, the emasculation of regional challengers<\/a> and efforts to radically reorder the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s doctrine, a more aggressive revision of Israel\u2019s earlier pre-emptive security traditions<\/a>, stands in sharp contrast to the approach pursued by the Oslo Accords<\/a>-era leadership of the 1990s and 2000s \u2014 figures such as Yitzhak Rabin<\/a>, Shimon Peres<\/a>, and later Ehud Barak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A<\/div>
\n In this September 1993 photo, U.S. President Bill Clinton presides over White House ceremonies marking the signing of the peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, right, in Washington, D.C.<\/span>
\n (AP Photo\/Ron Edmonds)<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They emphasized diplomacy over coercive leverage and perpetual confrontation. They sought genuine political settlements and a negotiated co-existence with Palestinians and neighbouring Arab states. This strategy \u2014 rooted in compromise and limited reconciliation \u2014 has now been decisively eclipsed by Netanyahu\u2019s highly militarized approach and his vision for achieving strategic power in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

This approach underpins all of Israel\u2019s modern-day actions<\/a> \u2014 from its reoccupation of parts of Lebanon<\/a> to its growing military footprint in Syrian territory<\/a>, the obliteration of Gaza<\/a>, its aggression against Iran<\/a> and the increasing calls for Iranian regime change<\/a> from the current Israeli cabinet.<\/p>\n

From buffer to power projection<\/h2>\n

Nowhere is this clearer than in Israel\u2019s expanding operations across its northern front. In Syria, Israel seized upon the post-Bashar al-Assad vacuum<\/a> to entrench military control over at least 12 square kilometres of new terrain, constructing infrastructure and outposts far beyond prior ceasefire lines. <\/p>\n

This had less to do with protecting minority populations<\/a> or deterring Iranian proxies<\/a> \u2014 as officials claimed \u2014 and more with establishing long-term buffer zones and projecting dominance into a fragile post-war Syria.<\/p>\n

A similar pattern is evident in Lebanon. Following months of border escalation, Israel has sought not only to undermine Hezbollah\u2019s capacity but to create no-go zones controlled by the Israeli military along the frontier. These operations reflect older strategic instincts but are now integrated in the ongoing process of Israel\u2019s northern border redesign.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n
\"People<\/div>\n

<\/a>

\n Black smoke rises from an industrial district following Israeli airstrikes in the coastal town of Ghazieh in Lebanon in February 2024.<\/span>
\n (AP Photo\/Mohammed Zaatari)<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, Israel\u2019s bombing campaign against Iran reflects a doctrine to move beyond containment toward strategic dismantlement of the Iranian regime\u2019s regional power and to erode its ability to control its own territory<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The escalation is the outcome of Israel\u2019s pursuit of a favourable regional moment \u2014 the weakening of the so-called \u201cAxis of Resistance\u201d following the Abraham Accords<\/a> of 2020 aimed at establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab nations \u2014 and months of war in Lebanon and Syria.<\/p>\n

From \u2018western ally\u2019 to regional challenger<\/h2>\n

A constellation of domestic and international changes has enabled Israel\u2019s transformation. <\/p>\n

These include a shift in Israeli political culture encouraged by Netanyahu\u2019s rejection of efforts to pursue some sort of regional co-existence and co-operation; the far right\u2019s growing influence in government; and the ongoing disruption of the international order amid Donald Trump\u2019s second presidency in the United States that gave Israel more room to manoeuvre. <\/p>\n

\n
\"Two<\/div>
\n U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the West Wing of the White House in April 2025.<\/span>
\n (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This constellation has eroded the few constraints the liberal international order had in the past imposed on Israel\u2019s pursuit of its regional policies amid an era of expansionism, permanent conflict and the aggressive management \u2014 not resolution \u2014 of the Palestinian issue. <\/p>\n

Israel is now heading down the same path as Russia and Turkey<\/a>, capitalizing on vast disparities in military and intelligence capabilities among regional powers to its advantage, disregarding international norms, undermining diplomacy and preferring transactional alliances instead of long-term peace processes.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has facilitated this transformation. Former president Joe Biden and now Trump have made very little effort to constrain Netanyahu. <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s \u201cGaza Riviera\u201d plan<\/a>, along with his isolationist rhetoric, have effectively left regional decision-making to Israel while he continues to underwrite Israeli military dominance and its use of overwhelming force to reshape its regional environment.<\/p>\n\n


\n
\n Read more:
\n Why Israel and the U.S. are sure to encounter the limits of air power in Iran<\/a>
\n <\/strong>
\n <\/em><\/p>\n\n

Netanyahu\u2019s reluctance to accept the current ceasefire<\/a> as a definitive end to hostilities with Iran reveals his and his cabinet\u2019s regional revisionist reflexes.<\/p>\n

Broader regional destabilization lies ahead as Israel seeks to destroy threats with immense military power without any strategic foresight.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

This article written by Spyros A. Sofos, Assistant Professor in Global Humanities, Simon Fraser University<\/strong> and is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Spyros A. Sofos, Assistant Professor in Global Humanities, Simon Fraser University Israel\u2019s recent strikes on Iranian territory have been widely framed as an act of deterrence or yet another episode in a protracted regional rivalry. Such interpretations overlook the deeper motivations behind Israel\u2019s actions. As a global humanities scholar who specializes in Middle Eastern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":3317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"inline_featured_image":false,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}