Israel at 77: A fragile state propped up by American power

More than 77 years since the Zionist project was planted at the heart of the Arab and Islamic world, and despite enjoying unprecedented military, political and financial support from the West, particularly the United States, Israel remains a fragile entity. For all the rhetoric portraying it as a military and technological powerhouse, its survival still hinges on foreign intervention.

Since 1948, Western powers have mobilised every instrument available, politics, capital, science, and brute military force, to uphold this settler-colonial project. Thousands of Jewish experts and professionals were brought in from Europe, America and the former Soviet Union, while billions were poured into building a state on the ruins of an indigenous population, denied basic rights simply because Palestinians weren’t considered “white enough” to deserve them.

Over the decades, Israel has amassed a formidable arsenal: unregulated nuclear weapons, the Iron Dome missile defence system, and surveillance technologies exported to repressive regimes around the world. Its intelligence services have trained authoritarian states from Latin America to Africa, turning the occupation into a global model for control.

Yet the illusion is wearing thin.

Since the launch of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation in October 2023, Israel’s vulnerability has been laid bare. This is not a self-reliant regional power, it is an entirely dependent project. It cannot endure prolonged resistance without American military support, European political cover, and consistent Western economic backing.

During its latest assault on Gaza, Israel relied heavily on US ammunition, airlifts, and naval deployment. Against Iran, it proved unable to act independently, requiring Washington to step in on its behalf. Just this week, the United States bombed Iranian nuclear sites, including the Fordow facility, in what appeared to be a direct request from Tel Aviv; a dangerous escalation that threatens to ignite a wider regional war.

One is forced to question: What kind of “regional power” needs a global superpower to fight its battles? What kind of sovereignty is that?

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Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israel continues a policy of violent erasure; assassinations, home demolitions, mass arrests, and the systematic punishment of prisoners and their families. In Gaza, we are witnessing a genocide: famine, siege, and the total destruction of life and infrastructure.

Even the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque has been violated. The compound has seen unprecedented closures, its prayer halls raided by night, copies of the Quran desecrated, and its guards detained, while much of the international community remains silent, if not complicit.

But what Israel fails to grasp is this: resistance is not confined to rockets. It is an idea, rooted, growing, and passed down through generations. From Gaza to the West Bank, and from Sana’a to Tehran, new alliances are taking shape. Palestine’s voice now echoes from Chicago to Cape Town.

Yes, Israel has a missile defence system, but it has no moral shield. Yes, it can carry out precision airstrikes, but it cannot destroy the idea of freedom that lives in the hearts of millions.

Seventy-seven years on, Israel still behaves like a spoilt, unruly child, forever looking to its powerful patron for protection. It lacks true independence, genuine sovereignty, and any sense of lasting security.

It is a heavily armed entity with a hollow centre. A state upheld not by legitimacy or justice, but by coercion and propaganda.

And that is why it will fall. Because ideas do not die. Because justice delayed is not justice denied. And because Palestine lives, in the ruins, in the camps, in memory, and in the future.

So the “state” that never matured will fall. And Palestine will endure, because it is the wound that never dried, and the truth that never fades.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.