Israel’s Murderous Collective Psychosis

Displaced family carrying bags and blankets walking through rubble and destroyed buildings.

Expulsion: How Israel’s Undefined Borders, Messianic Ideology, and Permanent War Economy Manufacture Consent for Genocide

The 82%

In March 2025, a Penn State University survey published in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper delivered the following article: 82% of Israeli Jews support the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, with 47% endorsing the killing of all inhabitants in conquered enemy cities—referencing biblical conquest narratives .

A separate Israel Democracy Institute poll found that over 80% of Israeli Jews believe Israel should consider Palestinian civilian suffering in Gaza only “to a very small extent” when planning military operations .

These figures represent not a spontaneous reaction to October 7, 2023, but the culmination of a 76-year project since the Nakba of 1948 of historical erasure, legalized discrimination, and ideological indoctrination.

Israel’s refusal to define its borders, its dependence on permanent war, the systematic theft of Palestinian land, and the rise of messianic religious extremism have all converged to create what researchers call a “state of permanent potential expansion”—where ethnic cleansing is not an aberration but a structural necessity. A murderous ideology combining white supremacism , ancient Yiddish messianist texts , the collective trauma response to the Holocaust and extreme violence and sadism.

Part I: The Foundation of Erasure—1948 and the Nakba

The Template of Dispossession

The Nakba—the 1948 expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians—established the blueprint for Israeli land acquisition that continues today. Immediately after that expulsion, Israel controlled 20 million dunams (20,000 km²) of Palestinian land—over three-quarters of all land in Palestine . This was not merely military occupation but the beginning of a legalized system of dispossession.

The “Transfer Committee,” headed by Jewish National Fund (JNF) director Yosef Weitz and approved by David Ben-Gurion, implemented a plan to destroy Palestinian villages and prevent refugee return . Between 360-429 villages were destroyed, with 345 new Jewish communities established on refugee land by 1953 .

The 1950 Absentee Property Law transformed de facto seizure into de jure ownership. This law defined “absentees” so broadly that it included Palestinians who were inside Israeli-controlled territory but temporarily away from their homes . The law allowed the Custodian of Absentee Property to sell confiscated land to the Development Authority, which then transferred it to the Jewish National Fund (JNF)—whose charter restricts land to Jewish ownership only .

The Absence of Borders: A Strategic Choice

When David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s establishment on May 14, 1948, he deliberately refused to specify borders . This was not administrative negligence but strategic design. To this day, Israel has never defined its international borders beyond those with Egypt and Jordan, while state maps—including those presented by Prime Minister Netanyahu at the United Nations—show Israel covering the full expanse from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea .

The 1949 Armistice Lines were explicitly designated as “without prejudice to future territorial settlements” , creating legal ambiguity that Israel has exploited for 76 years. This refusal to define borders creates what scholars call a “state of permanent potential expansion”—where territory is never finally acquired, only temporarily held, with further expansion always justified as security necessity.

Part II: The Architecture of Discrimination—Legal Apartheid from 1948 to Present

Phase 1: Military Rule (1948-1966)

Palestinian citizens of Israel were subjected to military government until 1966, living under the same British Mandate Defense Laws that Zionists had previously denounced as “inhuman and unjust” . During this period, Israel stripped Palestinian Arabs of a further estimated one million dunams of land through “security” designations and cultivation laws .

Phase 2: The Dual Legal System (1967-Present)

After 1967, Israel described capturing the West Bank and Gaza as “finishing the job”—the job being the ethnic cleansing begun in 1948 . The same pattern of dispossession was repeated, but without even the pretense of equality:

  • Jewish settlers in the West Bank live under Israeli civil law with full rights and protections
  • Palestinians are governed by over 1,800 military orders enforced through military courts with conviction rates exceeding 99%
  • This meets the legal definition of apartheid: an institutionalized regime of systematic racial oppression

The JNF’s Role in Structural Discrimination

The Jewish National Fund(JNF) owns 13% of Israeli land and manages another 80% through the Israel Land Administration, giving it control over 93% of all land in Israel . Its policies explicitly restrict land to Jews only. A 1961 Covenant between the JNF and Israeli government formalized this apartheid structure . Even when the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that this discrimination was illegal (Katzir-Qaadan case), the state simply offered to compensate the JNF with equal amounts of land to maintain Jewish-only ownership .

The 2018 Nation-State Law: ‘Legalising’ Supremacy

The “Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People” (2018) constitutionalised the hierarchy established in 1948.

The Basic Law:

  • Declares Jewish settlement a national value that the state must encourage and promote
  • States that “the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people”
  • This makes racially segregated housing official state policy, completing the trajectory from the 1950 Absentee Property Law to constitutional apartheid

Part III: The Permanent War Economy

Israel’s economy is structurally dependent on military conflict.

  • Military spending reached 30.46% of GDP in 1975 and averaged 11.8% from 1960-2024—nearly triple the world average of 2.2%
  • In 2024, military spending hit $46.5 billion (8.78% of GDP), second only to Ukraine globally
  • Defense exports reached $13.1 billion in 2023, representing 2.5% of total GDP and 100% growth since 2018

The Gaza Laboratory

Gaza serves a dual economic function: testing ground and showroom for Israeli military technology. As one analysis notes, “Gaza has become the world’s largest laboratory for drone assassinations and mass killing,” where Palestinians serve as “human test subjects” for commercialized cruelty . Each military offensive—from Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009) to Operation Protective Edge (2014) to the current genocide—acts as a product demonstration for international buyers.

Weapon Diplomacy

Arms exports function as foreign policy tools. Between 2014-2018, Israel was the world’s 8th largest weapons exporter (3.1% of global arms exports) . After the 2020 Abraham Accords, military exports to Arab states surged, reaching record highs of $12.5 billion in 2022 . This creates a feedback loop: military operations against Palestinians generate “combat-proven” technologies that are exported globally, with profits funding further military development.

The Constant War Machine

Israel has maintained continuous military operations since 1948, with major invasions and campaigns occurring in every decade:

Lebanon: Six Invasions in 50 Years :

  • 1978: Operation Litani—20,000 troops occupied southern Lebanon
  • 1982: “Peace for Galilee”—full invasion reaching Beirut, 60,000 troops, 800 tanks
  • 1993: Operation Accountability—displacing 500,000 civilians
  • 1996: Operation Grapes of Wrath—Qana massacre killed 106 civilians in UN compound
  • 2006: July War—34-day conflict with Hezbollah
  • 2024: Third Lebanon War—ground invasion following pager attacks
  • 2025/2026 Current ground invasion with recent temporary cease-fire (April 2026)

Gaza: The Never-Ending Campaign:
Since Hamas’s 2006 election, Israel has conducted Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009), Operation Pillar of Defense (2012), Operation Protective Edge (2014), Operation Guardian of the Walls (2021), Operation Breaking Dawn (2022), and Operation Swords of Iron (2023-present—ongoing genocide).

Part IV: Paramilitary Settler Violence

Settler violence is not random criminality but systematic, politically-motivated terrorism designed to expand territorial control and increasingly formally supported by Israeli Defence Force personel and weaponry.

Historical Evolution:

  • 1980s: Settler violence emerged as a “key factor undermining Palestinian security and livelihoods”
  • 2005-2008: The “price tag” strategy emerged after Israel’s Gaza disengagement, with settlers exacting “prices” against Palestinians in retaliation for any restrictions on settlement expansion
  • 2023-2024: Massive surge in violence. Since October 2023, The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented 1,536 settler attacks resulting in 152 Palestinian casualties and 1,226 property damage incidents

The Pattern of Violence:
Settler attacks follow a clear template: physical assaults, arson of homes and mosques, uprooting olive trees, stealing harvests, and blocking access to land. Between January and October 2024, settlers vandalized over 26,100 Palestinian-owned trees . In March 2024 alone, at least seven Palestinians were shot and killed by settlers—the highest monthly fatality count in a decade .

State Complicity:
Israeli forces are frequently present during attacks but refuse to intervene until Palestinians defend themselves . The Israeli government has accelerated the legalization of outposts that serve as bases for violence—regulating 30 illegal outposts in a single day in March 2025 . Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has explicitly called for annexation and dismantling the Palestinian Authority, which has unsurprisingly emboldened settler groups who view displacement as a religious duty .

Part V: The Rise of Messianic Power—Theological Extremism as State Policy

The Demographic and Political Transformation

Over the past ten years Israel has experienced a profound demographic and political shift driven by the explosive growth of religious populations:

Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Growth:

  • The Haredi community numbers 1,335,000 (13.6% of the population) with a 4% annual growth rate—nearly triple the general Jewish population’s 1.4%
  • Due to a fertility rate of 6.4 children per woman, half of the Haredi sector is under age 16
  • Projections indicate Haredim will constitute 16% of Israel’s population by 2030, and 32% of all Israelis by 2065

Religious Zionist Radicalization:
While Haredim are growing demographically, Religious Zionism has undergone ideological radicalization. The movement that began with Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook’s messianic theology has transformed from a moderate political force into the driver of relentless territorial expansion .

From Fringe to Mainstream: The Messianic Takeover

The January 28, 2024 “Victory Conference” marked a watershed moment. At Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, 10 cabinet ministers and 27 Knesset members (nearly one-quarter of parliament) gathered to call for:

  • The conquest of Gaza
  • Expulsion of its Palestinian population
  • Renewal of Jewish settlement in Gaza and Northern Samaria

Speakers quoted the Book of Numbers: “Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land”—a Blibical Old Testament ‘commandment’ interpreted literally to justify ethnic cleansing .

Netanyahu’s Transformation of Likud:
Benjamin Netanyahu deliberately transformed Likud from a secular nationalist party into a vehicle for religious extremism. As Hebrew University political scientist Gayil Talshir documents, Netanyahu “took a right-wing, national-oriented, liberal party and pulled it hard to the edge,” introducing “extremist religious and messianic elements into the heart of Likud” .

The Temple Mount Movement: Eschatology as Foreign Policy

The Temple Mount movement exemplifies how messianic ideology has been weaponized for territorial expansion. Once considered radical fringe, it has become mainstream through government support:

Ideological Evolution:

  • Pre-1967: Visiting the Temple Mount was forbidden by all leading rabbis as violating Jewish law
  • 1996: The Committee of Yesha Rabbis ruled that Jews “are permitted and even encouraged to enter the Temple Mount” to prevent territorial compromise
  • 2005: The Gaza disengagement caused “the final breakdown of the Kookist interpretation,” making the Temple a “substitute for the messianic vision”
  • 2020s: Support among Likud MKs grew “from virtually nil to almost half”

Government Funding and Support:

  • The Temple Institute received approximately $361,000 from the Ministry of Education and $210,000 from the Ministry of Culture and Sports between 2010-2015
  • Israeli public schools “indoctrinate children” into the movement, “forcefully exposing students to the Temple movements’ versions of history, ideology and Jewish law regarding the Temple Mount”
  • By 2016, Israel’s Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau publicly declared he wanted to see a temple built in the Noble Sanctuary

Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Ascent:
The appointment of Itamar Ben-Gvir (former disciple of Meir Kahane) as Minister of National Security represents the ultimate fusion of messianic ideology and state power. Ben-Gvir, who was convicted of supporting terrorism and inciting racism, now oversees the police force that once investigated him .

In June 2024, Ben-Gvir declared: “We say in the simplest way, it’s ours” regarding the Temple Mount, adding “We are the masters of Jerusalem and all of the land of Israel” . This is not religious fundamentalism but ultra-nationalism using religion as justification—what scholar Motti Inbari calls “theocratic post-Zionism” .

Part VI: Manufacturing Consent—Education, Media, and the Psychology of Denial

Educational Indoctrination

Israeli education systematically suppresses the Nakba and cultivates militarized nationalism:

  • Military jargon penetration: Classrooms use military terminology that “trivializes military discourse and mode of thinking”
  • Pseudo-military memorial services for fallen soldiers socialize children into militarized nationalism
  • School excursions to military bases and the “Next Generation” (HaDor HaBa) programs cultivate “civilian soft militarism”
  • Textbooks that mention massacres like Deir Yassin justify them because “the slaughter of friendly Palestinians brought about the flight of other Palestinians which enabled the establishment of a coherent Jewish state”
  • The 2011 Nakba Law criminalizes historical truth in educational settings

State-Sponsored Historical Revisionism

Benny Morris, the Israeli historian who documented Nakba atrocities, revealed that Israel’s Defense Ministry operates a secret department (Malmab) that systematically removes historical documents from archives to prevent documentation of 1948 atrocities . Morris himself was denied access to documents he had previously quoted, with archivists stating simply: “now the documents are closed” . This represents what scholars term “memoricide”—the systematic destruction of collective memory .

Media Manufacturing Consent

Research from UCLA’s Study of Hate demonstrates how media framing reinforces educational indoctrination :

  • British media used emotive terms like “atrocities,” “slaughter,” and “massacre” 11 times more frequently for Israeli victims than Palestinian victims, despite disproportionate death tolls
  • 80% of British media articles framed the conflict as “Israel-Hamas war,” aligning with Israeli-preferred narratives that obscure the occupation’s structural violence
  • Israeli attacks were described vaguely while Palestinian actions included weaponry specifications in 99.3% of articles versus 20.5% for IDF attacks

Israeli domestic media has become even more extreme. Channel 14 has been accused by human rights organizations of “incitement to genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity” .

The Psychological Mechanism of Selective Trauma

The system operates through what researchers call “competing historical truths” where empathy is systematically directed toward one group and denied to another . By suppressing the Nakba and framing Palestinians as eternal enemies, Israeli society maintains what psychologist Vamik Volkan terms “chosen trauma”—the selection of historical wounds (the Holocaust) that justify present aggression, while denying the other’s trauma (the Nakba) .

The Penn State study found that 65% of Israeli Jews believe in a modern-day “Amalek” (biblical enemy), with 93% believing the commandment to “wipe out the memory of Amalek” applies today . This transforms ethnic cleansing from a historical crime into a divine obligation, with Palestinians cast as successors to biblical enemies.

Part VII: The Self-Perpetuating Cycle—Connecting All Threads

Each element of Israeli/Zionist ‘lore’ reinforces the others:

1. Undefined Borders Enable Constant Expansion

Without defined borders, every military operation can be framed as border security rather than foreign invasion. The messianic belief in “Greater Land of Israel” sanctifies the entire territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean as divine judgement, making border definition not just politically difficult but theologically impossible .

2. Permanent War Requires Permanent Enemies

The military economy requires constant conflict to maintain funding and test technologies. As the Security in Context analysis notes, “Israel has positioned itself as a global exemplar in urban militarism and securitization, leveraging its experience in the Palestinian territories” . This creates an incentive for military escalation rather than diplomatic resolution or de-escalation.

3. Discrimination Legitimizes Dispossession

The 82% support for expelling Palestinians connects directly to the economic system. When Finance Minister Smotrich states that Ben-Gurion’s “mistake” was not “finishing the job” in 1948 , he articulates the logical conclusion of the permanent war economy: complete territorial control requires demographic transformation.

4. Settler Violence as Paramilitary Enforcement

Systematic settler attacks are used as irregular forces for territorial expansion, operating with state complicity. The 1,536 attacks since October 2023 are not aberrations but policy implementation by other means.

5. Messianism Provides Theological Justification

The messianist right has captured the education system, media, and legal structures to produce the 82% consensus. As Gayil Talshir, professor of political science at Hebrew University observes, Netanyahu has become both master and marionette of this system—using messianists for political survival while being forced to conform to their agenda .

6. The Feedback Loop to Maintain the Murderous Onslaught

The feedback loop is complete: military operations generate “combat-proven” technologies for export → export revenues fund further military R&D (4.5% of GDP—highest in OECD) → military service socializes citizens into militarized nationalism → this produces public support (82%) for further military operations → which justify further territorial expansion under “security” pretexts.

The Unbroken Chain from 1948 to 2024

The 82% support for expulsion, the settler violence, the media complicity, and the educational indoctrination are not aberrations but the logical culmination of a system established in 1948. The Nakba was not a historical event but a template for ongoing dispossession—legalized through the Absentee Property Law, normalized through education, justified through religious ideology, and enforced through settler violence.

As the Penn State researchers noted, October 7 “unleashed demons that have been nurtured over decades in the media and in the legal and educational systems” . Those demons were born in 1948, when Israel chose not to define its borders, and have been fed by every military operation, every land confiscation, and every act of discrimination since.

The “Victory Conference” warning was clear: if Netanyahu compromises on territory, he will be replaced by someone who won’t. The messianists have “cracked the genetic code of how to control the political system in Israel,” offering Netanyahu “great respect and the role of leader of the people” while receiving “dramatic control of the deeper structures of society: the education system, the media, the judiciary, the economy and of course the occupied territories” .

The 82% are not naturally evil individuals. They are the product of a system that has, for three generations, taught them that Palestinian suffering is instrumental to Jewish security, that ethnic cleansing is divine commandment, and that permanent war is the only possible condition.

Until this system is dismantled—its borders defined, its military economy transformed, its messianist ideology challenged, and its historical truths acknowledged—the cycle of dispossession will continue, with each generation finding new justifications for the ancient crime of 1948.

While the U.N. and the West push for a ‘two-state solution” and a return to the 1967 borders, the reality is that a new Palestine is no longer a viable economic or security option because of the destruction caused by Israel in the intervening years. Only a single state solution is now possible. A state where Palestinians and Israelis live side by side in peace, and where democratic rights for all citizens are respected and upheld.

That will require a comprehensive re-education programme for the 80% Israelis who currently favour genocide to learn how to respect those who they have been conditioned to consider as ‘other”. It can be done, and post-apartheid South Africa can serve as a somewhat imperfect model for this process.

Sources and Further Reading

Polling Data and Public Opinion:

Historical Documentation:

Economic Analysis:

Messianism and Politics:

Education and Media:

Settler Violence:

Demographic Data:

This article synthesizes peer-reviewed research, UN reports, and investigative journalism to present a comprehensive analysis of the structural factors behind current Israeli public opinion. All statistics and claims are linked to verifiable sources.

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