The rhetoric of “existential threat” has become the dominant currency of political legitimacy in both Israel and Europe. In Israel, this rhetoric is deeply entrenched—a well-documented doctrine of “permanent war” that frames every adversary as an existential danger requiring eradication rather than negotiation or a possible settlement. In recent years, Europe appeared to have adopted the same Israeli playbook, with leaders warning of an imminent Russian attack on NATO territory despite their own intelligence agencies admitting they see no evidence of such a threat. This is not paranoia; it is a calculated rhetoric, deliberately cultivated by warmongering politicians who benefit from sustaining a permanent threat – real or imagined – whether in Israel, Europe, or anywhere else.

The most striking recent exposure of this manufactured threat came not from Moscow, but from a NATO member state on the front line. On 30th September 2026, Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius stated plainly after meeting NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels: “Is there any proof, real proof intelligence services are providing, something on the table, that Russia is getting ready for something? And there is actually none.” If any country had reason to sound the alarm, it would be Lithuania due to its bordering of the Russian territory. Yet its prime minister explicitly warned against exaggeration, stating: “You can’t exaggerate and say, Oh, something is happening in the upcoming months or weeks.” When a leader of a frontline state with Russia is publicly dismissing the narrative of an imminent Russian attack, the question becomes unavoidable: who benefits from insisting otherwise?

Israel’s playbook: The doctrine of permanent war and victimhood

Israel’s use of the existential threat narrative is not a reaction to genuine peril but a deliberate strategy. To justify its open-ended military occupation, aggressive and expansionist agenda, Israeli leaders for decades played the victimhood card that it is being under constant existential threats, invoking the Holocaust and the spectre of annihilation.

Imagine how this playbook is blatantly applied, Israeli leaders, after committing a genocide and almost totally destroying Gaza, still say about........

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