Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pursuing expansionist policies. A BBC report on 31 May 2026, Israel seizes castle in Lebanon as it expands ground offensive, quoted him as saying that it was “a decisive stage and decisive shift in our policy”:
“We have broken the barrier of fear. We are taking the initiative, we are operating on all fronts - in Syria, in Gaza, in Lebanon,” he said. Netanyahu added that his aim was to “deepen and expand our grip on the places that were under Hezbollah’s control”.
And, as Reuters reported three days earlier, Netanyahu directs Israeli forces to expand Gaza control to 70 percent even though: “Under an October U.S.-brokered truce ..Israeli troops were meant to withdraw to a “Yellow Line” ..that line put Israel in control of some 53% of Gaza, with Hamas ruling the rest.”
“…Netanyahu describes the territory Israel has seized in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon as “buffer zones” that can stave off potential militant attacks following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led assault that set off the Gaza war.
Palestinians view Israel’s widening Gaza buffer zone as a part of a strategy to permanently displace them, pointing to remarks from senior ministers, including defense chief Israel Katz, saying they want to encourage “voluntary migration” from Gaza.”
This Israeli expansionism has drawn global condemnation. The timing is not a coincidence. It threatens the chances of the US reaching a deal to end its war with Iran that started on 28 February.
Donald Trump had been making optimistic claims about an imminent peace deal, but Israel does not want that. As its Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Tuesday, Israel won’t allow Trump to make a peace deal with Iran:
“I know that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and all of us members of the Cabinet … as the government of Israel cannot allow this to happen,” Ben-Gvir said in Hebrew. “This is an agreement that can harm the state of Israel, and we will not allow this to happen.”
Israeli expansionism reflects the belief of some religious fundamentalists that they have the God-given right to a Jewish state that is much larger than the territory that was granted to it by the UN in 1947. Ben-Gvir represents that viewpoint. A PatternsofPower.org blog post on the Conflict in Gaza on 10 October 2023 concluded that “Neither Hamas nor those Israeli settlers want peace. The Hamas charter makes it impossible for any compromise to be reached for a peaceful settlement. Each group wants to totally eliminate the other.”
The implacable opposition between fundamentalist Muslims and Jews will guarantee endless war. The violence fuels Islamophobia and anti-Semitism across the globe. The Middle East needs a peace agreement where each group respects the human rights of the other, with a 2-state solution for Israel/Palestine.