Israel’s occupation of Arab states does not necessarily have to take a physical form, as happened in the past with the rest of Palestine, the Syrian Golan, Egypt’s Sinai, and Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shouba Hills. It may also take other forms, as later envisioned in Israeli strategy. Following that period of occupation, Israel managed to penetrate several Arab states through normalization policies. This process did not stop at political or security dimensions. It also expanded into the economic sphere. Israel continues to pursue its expansion and formalization with other Arab states, despite maintaining its grip over Palestine and denying legitimate Palestinian rights. Israel’s strategies toward Iran, Gaza, and Lebanon intersect within an integrated framework. These strategies remain tied to its long-standing objectives. Through them, Israel continues efforts to neutralize any remaining opposition or resistance in the region.

U.S. and Israeli strategies toward the three fronts; Iran, Palestine, and Lebanon, show clear similarities. They pursue a single objective: eliminating any remaining political opposition to Israel in the region and preventing the emergence of any future material force that could challenge it. While a truce exists with Iran, economic and political pressure continues. Negotiations are also being used to secure gains under pressure, mainly related to Iran’s weapons capabilities and its future power. Likewise, despite the ceasefire reached in Gaza, the targeting, killing, and blockade of Gazans by the Israeli occupation continue. At the same time, pressure on Hamas persists through negotiations aimed at achieving its full disarmament. The same pattern appears in Lebanon. Although Israel and Lebanon reached a ceasefire agreement, it has largely remained nominal, much like in Gaza. The Israeli military continues targeting civilians, villages, and towns in southern Lebanon, while negotiations with the Lebanese government are used to pressure it toward the disarmament of Hezbollah.

Israel’s objectives in the region are not new, even if the strategies used to achieve them have changed according to shifting conditions and developments on the ground. When Israel occupied the rest of the Palestinian territories in 1967 and began drawing up plans to tighten its control over Palestinian land and subjugate its people, it moved in parallel on another front, to eliminate Palestinian power and resistance abroad, and to contain Arab opposition and rejection of its occupation and control over Palestine.

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After the 1967 occupation, Israel tried to strip the West Bank and Gaza Strip of sovereign status. It argued that, before the occupation, the two areas had been under Jordanian and Egyptian authority, not Palestinian rule. It also claimed that the 1949 borders were merely armistice lines, not final borders. On that basis, it refused to recognize its occupation of Palestine. Yet under a state of military occupation, recognized in both legal and international terms, Israel moved in practice to develop integrated plans for settlement expansion. These plans aimed to produce geographic change. They also involved transferring Jewish settlers into the settlements, creating a process of demographic change. At the first Camp David negotiations in 1978, Israel proposed a limited form of Palestinian self-rule, without sovereignty. This was to be done through an elected self-governing authority in the West Bank and Gaza during a transitional period. Taken together, these facts reveal Israel’s vision, objectives, and plans in........

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