Israel's Controversial Post-7 October Security Concept of 'Perpetual War'

Conflicts Forum’s compilation of strategic perspectives from leading Israeli commentators (predominantly translated from Hebrew), 3 May 2026

‘Israel’s Security Concept of Perpetual War Marks a Profound & Problematic Shift in its Traditional Security Doctrine’ (Udi Evental, Colonel (res.); Strategy and Policy):

‘The past two and a half years proves that the approach of preventing emerging threats by relying solely on force does not truly provide Israel with security, but rather exhausts it and erodes its ability to prepare for long-term challenges. Israel must return to the fundamentals – robust and effective defence, within our borders and with an offensive dimension when necessary. At the end of the day, wars are not won on the battlefield but through agreements that translate military achievements into an improved strategic reality’.

‘The Threshold of Paranoia was Crossed on 7 October; Israel Adopted a ‘Hardline’ Version of Permanent Security’ (Professor Yigal Levy, military sociologist):

‘Permanent security aims not only to eliminate immediate threats but also future ones, and is therefore subject to a paranoid mindset that generates self-fulfilling threats. The pursuit of a permanent solution allows for no compromise, whether political or deterrent; rather, it entails the destruction, expulsion or control of a population perceived as endangering the state’s security’.

‘With Permanent War, There is No End Game; The Enemy is an Undifferentiated Mass of Different Guises of Amalek’ (Professor Idan Landau — full interview in English):

‘Every single issue in foreign affairs is framed as either “existential threat” or “unavoidable use of military force”. There’s absolutely no room for talk about non-violent paths (“peace” is a taboo even on the left). The Enemy is an undifferentiated mass of Hamas/Iran/Hezbollah/ Houthis, in short, different guises of Amalek. The Gaza genocide has set a shocking new standard of indifference to civilian casualties: All targets are criminalized by association to your favorite Amalek (currently the IRGC), and we stopped bothering about substantiating this association with actual facts; declaring it so makes it so’.

‘Israel’s specific version of fascism has, in effect, produced divine or rabbinic legitimation for genocide’ (Interview with Professor Omer Bartov):

“The Holocaust … gradually became the glue binding Israeli society. A historical event transformed into an imminent threat: not something that happened in the past, but something always at the threshold. There will be another Holocaust if we don’t meet every threat with full force and destroy it at the root. After October 7, these two things fused. Hamas’s attack was framed as a Holocaust-like act — Hamas are Nazis. Criticizing Israel’s actions is antisemitic”.

[These compilations are drawn from analysis & commentary by leading Israeli political and security commentators, predominantly from the Hebrew press — as reports published in Hebrew often provide a different window on Israeli internal discourse. Minor edits have been made for clarity during translation].