Make Israel Great Again. Why Israel’s Elites do not Want To Win Any War at all.

Israel never lost a war, but Israel never won a war. It seems that the elites of Israel do not want to decisively win a war. Why is it? We see it now again. Israel has all the assets and the moment of history (Trump Administration greenlighting everything Israel wants) on its side, but the elites try to hide, walk away, and do everything not to win the war. Procrastination, disappearance, too many senseless internal fights about nothing and cowardice.

Quite by chance, I stumbled across a very instructive article about Israel’s high prices and cost of living. Immediately, the thought: Follow the trace of money and power. Who takes advantage and profits from not winning a war? Just keep the war simmering. You have to ask yourself who benefits. The citizens pay, but who wins? Spoiler: It’s the elites*, no matter whether right or left, elected or unelected. But first things first.

The headline and central argument of Nimrod Maderer’s excellent article in the magazine MIDA is: “Four government mechanisms that make living in Israel more expensive: Government subsidies, workers’ committees, production councils, and price controls harm free competition and raise the prices of products and services in Israel.“

That is the economic framework; the rest you can improvise yourself or read in this highly recommended article penned by Maderer.

But now we go a second step further. This requires an assessment of Israel’s status quo from a structural-economic perspective (in other words, I am leaving aside political, cultural, ethnic and religious dimensions here, but they all fit together, as you will quickly understand and can derive for your own).

Israel is more of a socialist state with a socialist economy and not so much a free market. Hence, democracy and free speech are at peril because of left forces, the deep state and a weak appeasing government.

This leads to seemingly absurd constellations that seem like ‘distortions/contradictions/tensions’ but are not, such as left-wing liberalism becoming authoritarian, even fascist, out of fear of losing control over power.

Something similar could also be observed in the USA under the aegis of the US Democrats. Side note: In the highly recommended Israeli documentary film ‘The Trial‘ this (sic!) ‘distortions/contradictions/tensions’ in Israel’s structure is (sic!)well described.

So, we now arrive at the third stage, the conclusion.

Israel could have won the war ten times already. In any case, with the re-election of Donald Trump as US President, victory would have been possible twice already. Why not? Part of the answer lies in Israel’s socio-economic structure.

Viewed from an economic-structural perspective as described above, all the procrastination, appeasement, and epic failures — not deploying strategic advantages (like the funeral of Nasrallah in Beirut; not eliminating 80,000 terrorists and leading generals of the Mullah regime is near madness) — make the lack of victory in the war (more, or at all) comprehensible.

Why? Assuming Israel decisively wins the war big (which means all “Palestinians” being displaced from Aza, Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem with the Temple Mount and Israel declaring full sovereignty, etc.), what follows?

Citizens will swiftly realise that the high costs of living endure, the deep state continues to govern, streets and infrastructure are still deteriorating, and there is a shortage of living space, among many other issues.

They, the simple citizens, will then see the reasons, as there is no longer a “Palestinian” problem clouding their perspective: there is no free market, no genuine democracy, restricted free speech, a monstrous bureaucracy restricting every aspect of live, elites (left, right, elected, unelected) with unwritten privileges and high incomes not shared, and an oligarchy of about 20 families ruling from behind the scenes.

Some conceptualise this ‘distortions/contradictions/tensions’ along the lines of ethnicity and religion/non-religious as the ‘First Israel”, the “Second”, and ‘Third Israel”. I’m not sure if this is really valid, but the underpinning idea is the same.

The underpinning idea: A rather socialist state based on a rather unjust society ruled by well-hidden and sheltered elites. The elites’ infights look strange like Japanese theatre to Non-Japanese and are fully disconnected from the reality of the citizens. We see those infights even in times of war.

Sidenote: Maybe this is an explanation of an feature of Israel’s elite behaviour hate to write e-mails etc but love to make calls. No traces. A speculative thought.

Structurally, our elites (left, right, elected, unelected) do not genuinely desire to win the war, as it would jeopardise the structures that sustain their power, income, and privileges. The Israeli elites are instinctively afraid of victory. Another very Israeli ‘distortions/contradictions/tensions’ is not finishing the task.

To stress again: This is not a conspiracy; no one orchestrated it, and there is no mastermind pulling the strings. It arises from economic structural logic and the necessity for those in power to keep power, income and privileges.

If Israel achieves a significant victory in the war, the elites will suffer considerable losses. And the elites know this instinctively on a deep, intuitive level.

Israel needs a DOGE, a Milei, a Trump, with a movement akin to the MAGA movement to establish freedom of market and speech and dismantle the deep state. But first things first, Israel needs to win the war big. After, Israel deserves better elites.

Make Israel Great Again.

First published 23. 02. 2025. Slightly adapted.

*Said from a structural-sociological POV. It does not mean literally each and any member of the elites.