Trita Parsi

military official, this is 2004.

So this is 22 years ago.

And he was very worried about Israel's future.

He said that when I fought in 67, when I fought in 73, I genuinely believed, we genuinely believed

that if we won this war against the Arabs, the Arabs would eventually realize they cannot defeat us militarily, so they will have to sue for peace.

So the military victory, the best case scenario, as you asked, was a transition to peace.

But he said to me, I look at the Israeli youth now, 2004, 22 years ago, and I don't see any belief in peace.

They believe that we're gonna be in constant warfare all the time and that this is just normal, that there is no such thing as a victory.

You just have to constantly fight.

And that's the only way for Israel to survive.

And he said that this worries me because this is not sustainable and this is gonna change Israeli society in a profound and very negative way.

And I think he was proven absolutely right.

So when it comes to your question of what is Netanyahu looking for, looking for, he thinks that Israel is going to always be in an endless state of war.

And as a result, you just constantly have to fight that battle and make sure that you have the tactical advantage.

This is all presuming because Israel could never do this without this constant support resources.

Not for a week.

from the United States.

So they've structured their entire approach based on the idea that the US is some sort of a cash cow or intelligence cow or weapons cow that will just constantly end up giving.

And that is one of the most important things that has now changed in the last five or so years and will change even further.

So this is a strategy that simply does not work.