Israel’s Endless War: No Finish Line in the Conflict Spiral

Less than a week after a memorandum of understanding between Tehran and Washington ended the three-month U.S.-Iran war, a public opinion poll in Israel found that 92% of Israelis believe America squandered its victory over a decades-old enemy. Nearly half of those surveyed said Israel should keep attacking Lebanon and Hezbollah, disregarding persuasion from Washington.

Since the surprise Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,139 people, Israel has plunged into a spiral of endless war. Tel Aviv has waged a genocidal campaign in Gaza that has left more than 73,000 Palestinians dead, struck Iran twice, killed thousands in Lebanon, repeatedly entered Syria, and launched sporadic strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

In Israel’s fractious parliament, support for the country’s wars is one of the few points of consensus. Former chief of staff and would-be successor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gadi Eisenkot, called the strikes on Iran “the most just war in recent decades against the bitterest enemy.” Opposition leader Yair Lapid also offered enthusiastic backing but fumed at the U.S. decision to reach a deal with Tehran, branding it “one of the most astonishing failures of Israel’s foreign and security policy.”

Daniel Bar-Tal, a sociology professor at Tel Aviv University, says this reaction is unsurprising. In his view, it stems from linking the 2023 attack to the “central anchor” of Israeli identity: the Holocaust. The event was framed not merely as a catastrophe but as the latest chapter in the Jewish historical trauma narrative. “The justness of national goals, the glorification of the Jewish people, the collective sense of victimhood, and the de-legitimization of Palestinians” have become deeply embedded in the consciousness of most Israelis.

After nearly three years of almost continuous war, few Israelis believe the country is safer than before October 7, 2023. In Gaza, Hamas still controls most of the territory. In Iran, the regime that Netanyahu told U.S. allies would collapse within days of the war’s start remains firmly in place.

Scholar Shaiel Ben-Ephraim argues that no concrete achievement can stop this endless war. He points to two main drivers: one reflecting Israel’s immediate circumstances, and one reflecting a fundamental shift in Israeli consciousness after the October 7 attack. Netanyahu, facing an upcoming election, continues to carry the burden of that event along with a standing corruption trial.

According to Ben-Ephraim, the military establishment and all major prime ministerial candidates—Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett, Eisenkot—adhere to a defense doctrine of “crushing every threat before it develops,” believing that neither deterrence nor diplomatic agreements are possible. “This is a consequence of October 7, when all these measures failed. The result is not just a desire to destroy Gaza and southern Lebanon, but also to annihilate Iran, Turkey, and every other potential threat, completely and irreversibly.”

“No achievement can stop this. It is a pathology born of trauma and political need. Only a complete strategic reversal could change it in the future.”