External danger is real; only renewed legitimacy can ensure the state can respond.

Israel today faces existential threats. What is new—and more troubling—is that the State of Israel is being required to confront those threats under conditions that are themselves becoming unstable.

This essay builds on earlier analysis of Israel’s democratic erosion and strategic condition. In Israel at the Brink: A Systemic Crisis of Democracy, I argued that Israel is not experiencing a passing political dispute but a sustained weakening of institutional restraint. That diagnosis now points to a more demanding question: whether the state can sustain effective action under simultaneous external and internal pressure.

Israel’s existential challenge is dual: external and domestic, operating simultaneously and reinforcing one another.

Externally, the threat is real and serious. The posture of Iran—including its nuclear trajectory and its network of regional proxies—has long been understood as posing potentially existential risks in Israeli strategic analysis. This reflects concrete scenarios that could fundamentally challenge Israel’s security and long-term viability.

But beyond strategy, the threat is also immediate. In the north, communities remain displaced. Families face ongoing uncertainty about return. Deterrence remains incomplete. In the south, areas affected by October 7 have yet to be fully rehabilitated, and a sense of security has not been fully restored. External threat is therefore uneven, prolonged, and deeply felt.

At the same time, internal security is unevenly enforced across Israeli society. Persistent criminal violence affecting Arab citizens of Israel,........

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