Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza serves as a stark and tragic reminder of the central role that Israel’s permanent war economy plays in perpetuating its settler-colonial project. The scenes of utter devastation and human suffering that unfolded in the besieged enclave were nothing short of apocalyptic, marking a chilling new chapter in the long history of Israel’s brutal repression of the Palestinian people. The Israeli genocide encapsulates how Israel’s permanent war economy functions as an integrated system that combines military technology, economic profit, and settler-colonial violence into a self-reinforcing cycle of destruction.
At the heart of this genocide lies Israel’s exploitation of Gaza as a “laboratory” for testing, optimizing, and marketing its advanced military technologies (Loewenstein, 2023). This war represents a horrifying milestone as the first “AI-assisted genocide” in history, with Israel deploying sophisticated systems like Project Habsora and Lavender to generate target lists and coordinate bombing campaigns to systematically kill Palestinian civilians on a mass scale.[1] These “combat-proven” weapons, celebrated by Israeli arms manufacturers as the future of warfare, create a perverse cycle where Palestinian civilian casualties drive technological advancement and arms sales.
This latest genocide in Gaza is not an isolated incident but rather a continuation of a decades-long pattern in which the occupied Palestinian territories have been subjected to relentless violence and dispossession in service of Israel’s permanent war economy. From the development of cutting-edge surveillance technologies to the testing of advanced military hardware, the suffering and death of Palestinians have been routinely commodified and transformed into lucrative business opportunities for Israeli arms companies.
Underlying this exploitative system is a profound societal militarism that permeates every aspect of Israeli life. This militarism serves as a growth engine, funneling vast resources into the development of advanced military technologies and nurturing a skilled pool of human capital dedicated to sustaining the war economy. From the education system to the high-tech industry, the military-industrial complex is woven into the very fabric of Israeli society, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of conflict and violence.
From the development of cutting-edge surveillance technologies to the testing of advanced military hardware, the suffering and death of Palestinians have been routinely commodified and transformed into lucrative business opportunities for Israeli arms companies.
The intimate relationship between Israel’s academic institutions and its military-industrial complex is a prime example of this dynamic. Universities across disciplines have been mobilized to serve the settler-colonial project, providing specialized training for military high-tech careers, conducting research with direct military applications, and even offering courses on arms marketing strategies.[2] This symbiotic partnership between the ivory towers and the war machine ensures a steady supply of human resources to fuel the growth of Israel’s permanent war economy. The military’s influence extends far beyond the traditional realms of defense and security, shaping the very foundations of Israeli society. Mandatory military service, for instance, exposes the majority of the Jewish population to intense socialization and indoctrination, solidifying the normalization of militarism from a young age. This prolonged exposure to military culture and technologies not only shapes individual worldviews but also feeds directly into the expansion of the high-tech sector, as veterans transitioning to civilian life often find employment in the very industries that sustain the war economy.
Crucial to the expansion of Israel’s war economy has been its strategic alliance with the United States, which has provided unwavering financial, military, and diplomatic support. American patronage has enabled Israel to modernize its military arsenal, develop sophisticated military technologies, and cultivate a robust domestic arms industry.[3] This partnership has not only shielded Israel from international accountability but has also allowed it to project power and influence in the region and globally through the proliferation of its military exports. The deep-rooted dependency of Israel’s war economy on the broader American military-industrial complex is evident in the structural imbalances that characterize the relationship between Israeli firms and their larger, more resourceful American counterparts. Facing challenges of scale and access to supply chains, many Israeli companies find themselves relegated to subcontractor roles, specializing in niche components and services that enhance U.S.-manufactured systems. This dynamic highlights the power asymmetries at play, with the vast financial and technological resources of the American military-industrial complex wielding significant influence over the agenda-setting and operations of Israel’s war economy.
Arms sales have become a key foreign policy instrument, used to forge strategic alliances, normalize its settler-colonial project, and enable repressive regimes worldwide.
Israel’s arms export industry illustrates the geopolitical dimensions of its permanent war economy and exemplifies how militarization serves multiple strategic objectives beyond immediate security concerns. Arms sales have become a key foreign policy instrument, used to forge strategic alliances, normalize its settler-colonial project, and enable repressive regimes worldwide. For example, the signing of the Abraham Accords represents a significant milestone in this strategy, unlocking a substantial influx of Israeli military and security technology transfers to Arab states (Nissenbaum, 2022). These agreements have not only normalized diplomatic relations but have also facilitated unprecedented military cooperation and arms sales with Gulf states, significantly expanding Israel’s regional influence and driving heightened militarization across the region. The deals have included advanced drone systems, surveillance equipment, and cyber-security solutions – many of which were developed and tested in the context of controlling Palestinian populations.
This weaponization of diplomacy serves multiple purposes: it generates significant revenue for Israel’s military-industrial complex, creates strategic dependencies among purchasing states, legitimizes Israel’s security practices and occupation policies, and helps fragment potential regional opposition to its colonial project. Moreover, these arms exports often come with training packages, maintenance agreements, and ongoing technical support that create long-term relationships and influence networks. The result is a complex web of military-industrial relationships that both sustain Israel’s war economy and expand its geopolitical reach.
Beyond the conventional military-industrial complex, Israel’s war economy also encompasses the lucrative trade in sophisticated surveillance and cyber-warfare technologies. Private Israeli firms like NSO Group and Candiru have been implicated in providing repressive digital tools to worldwide governments, enabling the monitoring and suppression of dissidents and journalists globally. This nexus between security, technology, and the perpetuation of human rights abuses further underscores the far-reaching tentacles of Israel’s permanent war economy.
Fundamentally, Israel’s war economy is not a mere byproduct of security concerns or geopolitical rivalries but rather a central tenet of its settler-colonial project. The intertwining of military, economic, and political strategies is essential to the very existence and expansion of the Israeli settler-colonial project. Societal militarism, American patronage, the exploitation of occupied Palestinian territories, and the leveraging of arms exports for diplomatic influence – these are the four key pillars that sustain and propel this permanent war economy (Dana, 2024). The weight of the historical record and the existing empirical data about the Israeli war economy machine conveys the urgency of rejecting the Zionist settler-colonial ideology and dismantling Israel’s permanent war economy. Beyond the immediate human toll, the far-reaching consequences of this system extend well beyond Israel’s borders, contributing to the escalation of conflicts, the suppression of human rights, and the erosion of international norms and laws worldwide. The dismantling of Israel’s permanent war economy is not just a matter of justice for the Palestinian people but a global imperative to challenge the systemic militarism and violence that threaten the very foundations of a just world order. It requires concerted efforts on multiple fronts, including international sanctions, corporate boycotts, and legal action against the perpetrators of these crimes. Only through a comprehensive rejection of the Zionist ideology and the severing of its war economy’s tentacles can the international community begin to address the massive and systematic war crimes and the perpetuation of genocide and ethnic cleansing that have been the hallmarks of Israel’s settler-colonial project.
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[1] See: https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/ and https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/
[2] See: Taraki L. (2015). The complicity of the Israeli academy in the structures of domination and state violence. In B. Mullen and A. Dawson (Eds.) Against apartheid: The case for boycotting Israeli universities. Chicago, IL: Haymarket, pp. 21–29.
[3] See: https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/israels-dependence-united-states-existential
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References
Dana, T. (2024). Death dealers: Dynamics of Israel’s permanent war economy. Capital & Class. https://doi.org/10.1177/03098168241291350
Nissenbaum, D. (2022, October 9). Israel’s defense industry is big winner two years after Abraham Accords. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/israels-defense-industry-is-big-winner-two-years-after-abraham-accords-11665317252
Loewenstein, A. (2023). The Palestine laboratory: How Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world. London, England; New York, NY: Verso Books.
