Nathan J. Brown
In launching war against Iran, Israel has made unmistakably clear that it is operating according to a strategic logic very different from the one that has long guided its statecraft. The United States may be participating in the war, but American officials have offered a baffling series of explanations of their aims and have been consistent only in denying that they have entered a “forever war.” Israel’s leaders have been far less equivocal. They seem to have concluded that they are already in a forever war—and that the task is not to end it, but to manage it on tolerable terms.
Indeed, since October 7, 2023, Israeli leaders have embraced a strategic logic that departs sharply from the way deterrence, domination, and diplomacy have long blended in Israeli statecraft. What some took to be an immediate and traumatized response to October 7 was actually more durable. Deterrence and diplomacy have been eclipsed by something harsher: a preference for domination, degradation, and the prevention of the adversaries’ recovery. That shift is now driving a broad set of military actions that are reshaping the region.
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