“Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”
This quote comes from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and in the wake of the US-Israeli attack on Iran – which killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, shocking the Muslim world and destabilising the entire region – it is hard not to see the connection to recent events.
The unprovoked onslaught, which came despite apparent progress in negotiations in Oman, now threatens the lives of millions of people across the region.
It follows US President Donald Trump’s repeated promise to end conflicts, representing another Orwellian inversion: “War is peace, peace is war.”
The escalation also comes in the context of recent statements by US ambassador Mike Huckabee endorsing Israel’s right to expand its borders from the Nile to the Euphrates, while Israel continues its drive to seize more Palestinian lands; and the Munich speech by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which expressed a desire to restore western greatness through a return to colonialism, to the delight of European political elites.
The US and Israel are eliminating political and religious leaders, amid blatant disregard for the sentiments of the peoples of the Global South – and for the long-term consequences in reframing world politics.
We do not need to imagine how the new world order will unfold. Rather, we must examine Israel and Israeli society in light of the present reality, including the romanticisation of war and broad support for mobilising the machinery of war.
Broad political consensus
While Israeli forces bomb Iran and kill innocent civilians, many Israelis – sitting in cafes in between running for shelter during Iran’s retaliatory attacks – describe this as a just war, one aimed at liberating the Iranian people, especially women, from the rule of the ayatollahs. These comments come even as more than 150 schoolgirls were reportedly killed in southern Iran.
Such sentiments echo common Israeli views towards Palestinian society, amid widespread support for the use of unprecedented force and disregard for international law in Israel’s endless quest for territorial expansion.
Even more troubling is the apparent readiness of Israeli society to sacrifice their own lives for the sake of Israel’s expansion, and its projection of military power across the region.
This is reflected in the broad consensus in favour of the war, spanning the political spectrum, despite the understanding that the greatest beneficiary of this conflict is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself. This shows that the opposition is in lockstep with Netanyahu’s foreign policy, despite disagreements over his domestic conduct.
Indeed, opposition leader Yair Lapid has openly endorsed the idea that Israel should expand its borders to control other territories in the region.
Such support has been growing over the past two decades, as demographic changes and the growing strength of religious movements – from the ultra-Orthodox to religious nationalists – have intensified internal debates over religion and state, resource distribution, and military conscription.
Political elites across the spectrum understand that Israeli society unites around war. It is a society that has built its ethos around war and alienation from the region, viewing territorial expansion as natural, while duplicitously employing liberal western terminology about helping minorities and women.
While world leaders attempt to balance their interests – UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, for example, distanced his country from the initial attack, but then confirmed British fighter jets were working to defend western allies – the message received by Israeli society is clear. The West supports these operations, despite Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, occupation of parts of Syria and Lebanon, and the bombing of Yemen.
This support remains steadfast, even as the person leading this entire process, Benjamin Netanyahu, is wanted on charges of genocide in Gaza.
Brutal model for the world
So far, Netanyahu appears to be the primary beneficiary of this chain of events. While it is difficult to predict the outcome of the current war, Netanyahu has once again proven his ability to drive US policy.
He has shown Israeli society that despite American public opposition to war and the pressures placed on Trump by his Maga support base – which largely opposes the US paying the price for Israel’s wars – he has succeeded once again in achieving what had once seemed like an Israeli fantasy: dragging the US into another Middle Eastern conflict, just like he did during the Iraq war. In short, Netanyahu is making the Americans do his dirty work.
Unlike 2003, when the Bush administration entered Iraq with a strong economy and broad international support, Trump is acting under conditions of major economic strain and limited international support.
Thus, regardless of the outcome – whether the Iranian state and leadership fall or survive – in the eyes of the Israeli public, Netanyahu has already succeeded. He is moving ever-closer towards making the Greater Israel project a reality, with explicit US backing.
Now, as Israel prepares for elections later this year – and amid pressure from Trump on President Isaac Herzog to grant Netanyahu a pardon, even though he has not yet been convicted – the Israeli prime minister appears to be gaining on both the domestic and international fronts.
This is the model Israel offers the world: a mobilised society ready for war, territorial expansion, and contempt for diplomacy and international agreements; an expression of Rubio’s vision of a renewed colonial era.
Yet despite the intoxication of military power, both Israeli society and the West more generally are on track to once again learn why the colonial era ended.
It did not end because of liberal values or western goodwill. It ended because the practices the West applied in the Global South returned like a boomerang against its own peoples in the First and Second World Wars.
History does not end here. The peoples of the Global South have long fought against colonialism – and they will continue to do so, refusing to live with a western boot stamping on their faces.