Decoding Israel’s Superpower Ambitions | Daniel Levy | TMR

Netanyahu's vision of 'Greater Israel' is not merely about territorial acquisition but a broader geopolitical project to establish hard power hegemony over an expanded Middle Eastern region. This involves ensuring Palestinian rights are denied, dismantling Iran as a power balancer, and weakening surrounding states to create dependencies that Israel can exploit.

Daniel Levy states, 'Netanyahu is pursuing a geopolitical project attempting... hard power domination, the creation of a zone of Israeli hard power hegemony... in a much more expanded region.' He adds, 'Part of that is therefore bringing down Iran as any kind of power balancer.'

Netanyahu seized the current moment of global geopolitical fluidity as a unique opportunity to advance his agenda. He recognized that US power might be waning and its image tanking, making it a 'use it or lose it' situation to leverage US military might against Iran, even if it further damaged US standing.

Levy explains, 'Netanyahu almost uniquely saw this as a moment of great opportunity... before a new set of rules comes into place... before some kind of restraint is imposed on him.' He detected that 'American power itself is not what it once was and this was the time therefore to go for it.'

The war has exposed the US's prioritization of Israel over its Gulf allies' existential interests, leading these states to reassess their dependencies. They are now actively hedging their options, including threatening to shift away from the petrodollar by demanding US dollar currency swaps or trading oil in Chinese currency.

Levy notes, 'The Gulf sees that when it comes to their existential interest, they had virtually no hearing in the White House and the White House did Israel's bidding.' He cites the UAE's threat to trade oil in Chinese currency as putting 'in play the thing that you are most vulnerable on which is precisely... the centrality of the dollar as the global reserve currency.'

Netanyahu's plan anticipates a potential decline in US influence, aiming to fill the resulting power vacuum. Israel seeks to position itself as the primary security guarantor and economic hub in the region, offering alternative trade routes and forming new alliances, despite its own internal fragilities.

Levy states, 'If I smash this up, if we've created a collapsed state and chaos... the spillover effect is felt in the Gulf. Then as they look around and say, 'Well, what do we base our security on now?' They go, 'We may not like it, but there is the most powerful military in the region is over there. It's Israel.'' He mentions Netanyahu's 'hexagon of alliances' and proposals for pipelines through Israeli ports.