The Israeli Empire Lashes Out
Israel's airstrikes in Iran and Lebanon are another step on the long road to regional conquest.
In the span of twelve hours, Israel bombed the capitals of both Lebanon and Iran, drawing the Middle East to the brink of war. The attacks, which targeted Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, were Israel’s retribution for the rocket barrage that killed twelve Druze children in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday. Details are still murky, as Israel has taken responsibility for bombing Beirut but not Tehran, while Hezbollah denied responsibility for the Golan Heights strike. That said, Occam’s Razor (as well as Israel’s quickly-deleted admission) tells us Israel and Hezbollah are the responsible parties.
The response from Israel’s officials and supporters was as expected. Vice President Kamala Harris defended the Lebanon bombing by claiming Israel has a “right to defend itself,” while Israel-aligned media celebrated the belligerent escalation as if it were their favorite musician announcing a new album.
As the presumptive Democrat Presidential nominee stated, Israel’s attacks are being positioned as “self-defense.” While this framing is frequently used to excuse Israeli aggression in the short term, a thorough examination of Israel’s history, actions, and public statements shows a different motivation: the expansion of the Israeli Empire.
Israel’s Self-Offense
As I’ve written previously, Israel’s frequent claim to self-defense is fictitious. It has no right to retaliate against military attacks pertaining to the territories it has occupied since the culmination of the 1967 Six-Day War.
International law is clear. The people of Gaza, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights are under illegal occupation and have a right to fight their Israeli occupiers. The passage of time does not erase the self-determination rights of Palestinians, Syrians, Druze, or any other group, just as a thief does not gain ownership of stolen items by hiding them away.
Considering the allegedly-Hezbollah strike killed twelve Druze youths, it’s woefully ironic Israel claimed its Beirut and Lebanon attacks were just retribution. The Druze, an ethno-religious group spread throughout the Levant, have a fraught relationship with the Zionist state. While some Druze are Israeli citizens, the majority who live in the Golan Heights consider themselves Syrian and reject the idea they are Israeli. According to them (and this little thing called international law), the Syrian Druze are an occupied people, just like the Palestinians. According to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Druze face systemic discrimination from Israel, which will likely worsen if Israel achieves its goal of doubling the number of Golan Heights settlements by 2027. While Israel offers Druzes citizenship, none of the children killed in Sunday’s attack were Israeli citizens. This indicates their families reject Israel’s claim to the Golan Heights and view themselves as occupied.
As Hezbollah’s rockets hit territory that is not Israel’s and killed children whom Israel systematically discriminated against, any claim the IDF acted in self-defense is unfounded. Given this paradoxical logic, it’s clear Israel’s bombardments are not defensive in nature, but a cynical weaponization of the loss of twelve young lives to further Israel’s expansionist goals.
Imperial Aims
While Israel’s military actions are common in today’s headlines, its imperialist aims are not a modern evolution. The 1948 Declaration of Israel’s Independence did not declare Israel’s established borders. Instead, it stated the creation of “Eretz-Israel” (or “Eretz Yisrael”), a biblical term referring to the territory that starts at the Mediterranean Sea and stretches to Turkey and Iraq. To this day, Israel has not clarified what it believes to be its borders. By refusing to state where its jurisdiction ends, Israel is leaving open the door for it to seize and annex other territories, as it did with the Golan Heights in 1981.
“Eretz Yisrael (n): the concept, favored by some extreme Zionists, of a Jewish state, the territory of which matched the largest expanse of biblical Israel” — Collins Dictionary
As the term is derived from the descriptions provided in the Torah, there are varying opinions among Zionists about where the territory ends (see the map below). But one issue is undisputed: Eretz-Israel exists far outside modern Israel’s internationally recognized borders, meaning Zionism’s goal requires inevitable wars with its neighbors.
The goal of establishing an exclusively Jewish ethno-empire is not a relic of the ancient past. As Zionist leaders have told us, they plan to facilitate Israel’s expansion through militarism and conquest. Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, was quite explicit that he intended to expand the new state far into the territory of other nations. The below quotes are just a few that articulate his, and Israel’s, ambitions of conquest.
“After the formation of a large army in the wake of the establishment of the state [of Israel], we will abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine.”
“The acceptance of partition does not commit us to renounce Transjordan [Jordan]. One does not demand from anybody to give up his vision. We shall accept a state in the boundaries fixed today — but the boundaries of Zionist aspirations are the concerns of the Jewish people and no external factor will be able to limit them.”
The desire to establish Eretz-Israel did not die with Israel’s founders, but was passed on and materialized through the generations. After the International Court of Justice ruled Israel was, in fact, illegally occupying the West Bank, current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released this statement referring to the territory “Judea and Samaria.”
“Judea and Samaria” is a portion of Eretz Israel, defined by Zionists as ‘the mountainous areas west of the Jordan River.” By using this term, Netanyahu is making his intentions clear: the Zionist ambition is to fully conquer the West Bank, the Gazan Strip, and the Golan Heights.
Such an act would be an abomination on its own. However, conquering the Palestinian territories is only the surface of the most maniacal aims of Israel. The video below, taken in November 2023, shows a frank admission from an Israeli officer to his troops. The unidentified officer declares an intention to conquer all of “Greater Israel,” including neighboring nations.
“This is the happiest month of my life, as long as I live over 40 years. The land is ours—the whole country! All of it! Including Gaza! Including Lebanon! The whole promised land!”
The desire for the establishment (or, in the religious view, the reestablishment) of an Israeli empire is not limited to Israelis or even Jews. It holds a bizarre place in Christian theology, which believes the reestablishment of Eretz-Israel will trigger the apocalypse. At that point, Jesus will return to cast two-thirds Jews into hellfire, while one-third will convert and join him. The most prolific proponent of this theory is Pastor John Hagee, who has written several books about the need for Israel to reconquest the Levant.
“In [the Christian Zionist] interpretation, settlers’ further control of the occupied West Bank, which they call by its biblical names Judea and Samaria, is a fulfillment of God’s plan for a Jewish return to Israel — one of a sequence of biblical prophecies that culminates in the Second Coming.” — Sarah Posner, historian of the Christian Right
One of Hagee’s books was even made into a movie about a nuclear terrorist attack that will trigger his desired end times. It is… something else.
Unfortunately, the desire for an Israeli Empire is not limited to obscure IDF personnel and American televangelists. Earlier this week, Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, suggested Israel should invade Lebanon. Such a move would further the conquests of the Israeli Empire, giving it the land it has long viewed as its hypothetical home. As is done with the Palestinian territories, Ben Gvir couched his plotted attack in the language of “security,” stressing the invasion was necessary to protect Israel from Hezbollah.
And that returns us to the current crisis.
Past and present, Zionists, whether they be Israeli or American, Jew or gentile, desire Israel to expand its borders, conquer Arab nations, and expel those they deem unworthy of living within Eretz-Israel. This isn’t the wild imaginations of an absurd conspiracy theory, but the logical conclusion of observing Israel’s military and listening to its politicians and supporters. The armed resistance of any form, whether it be Hezbollah, Hamas, or any other paramilitary or national force, is an obstacle to Israel’s espoused expansionist goals. Therefore, they must be destroyed, even if it risks throwing the Middle East into all-out war.
The myth of Israel as an underdog nation defending itself from bloodthirsty aggressors has existed for far too long given overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Israel is not a victim; it’s an empire, bent on conquering its neighbors, seizing their lands, and dominating their people. If you don’t believe me, just ask Palestine.
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Still a lot of murkiness about the tragedy in the Golan Heights. In no way was this a deliberate attack by Hezbollah considering the Druze in Lebanon are its allies. Also up to now Hezbollah have made a point of only attacking Israeli military targets. As you mention most the people in the town have refused Israeli citizenship and drove away Netanyahu when he tried to visit, so why would Hezbollah attack a town with anti-Israeli feelings. There is the possibility that this was a mis-fire by the resistance or by Israel’s Iron Dome. In any case Netanyahu, like he has always done, exploited this to the full to create more death and destruction in the region.