This Is How the Iran War Has Exposed Israel's Weakness in the Middle East

A top Beirut-based analyst dives into the fundamental problem in Israel's 'Iron Wall' strategy.

Netanyahu gives a press conference in Jerusalem on March 19, 2026. Photo by Ronen Zvulun/AFP via Getty Images

To understand the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, we must recall that the Israeli prime minister is the political heir of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement, one of whose aides was Netanyahu’s father, Benzion. Jabotinsky outlined Israel’s stark reality in an essay in 1923 titled “The Iron Wall.”