From David to Goliath: How Israel’s outsized shadow sparks global instability, isolation

Illustration: TBS

There is a now-legendary artwork titled "Napoléon à Brienne" by Jacques Marie Gaston Onfray de Bréville, where the French illustrator depicts a young Napoleon Bonaparte studying as a cadet at the Royal Military School of Brienne-le-Château in France. The young cadet casts a strikingly large shadow on a map of Europe behind him, symbolising his future destiny and vast empire. 

This lithograph is oddly reminiscent of modern-day Israel, a tiny nation by most metrics, casting a dark shadow on almost the entire world. 

Ranking 93rd in population and 148th in size, the state exerts an outsized, destabilising and overwhelmingly negative impact on global politics, international law and civil liberties. 

Architecture of war and corporate integration

Israel's global influence stems from a concentrated military-industrial base, supported by $48.3 billion in military spending — 7.8% of its 2025 GDP, the world's third-highest share. 

This funds defence giants like Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael, and Elbit Systems, whose innovations — including the Iron Dome and Arrow — make Israel the world's seventh-largest arms exporter (4.4% globally). 

A robust venture capital and startup ecosystem in AI, cybersecurity, and dual-use tech continually commercialises military R&D.

This capacity is amplified by foreign tech partnerships: Palantir supplies military AI, Microsoft powers Unit 8200's intelligence infrastructure via Azure, Google and Amazon host the $1.2 billion Project Nimbus cloud, and Motorola Solutions and HPE support radar, biometric, and policing databases. 

The ecosystem also drives cyber-surveillance exports like NSO Group's Pegasus. Anchoring it all is a deep US alliance featuring $330 billion in cumulative aid (1946–2024), $21.7 billion in military aid over two years, and influential lobbying networks like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Human rights violations and systemic abuse

UN human rights experts and Amnesty International have concluded that Israel is committing genocide and the crime of apartheid against Palestinians, a finding the Israeli government rejects. 

Since 7 October 2023, the recorded death toll in the Gaza Strip has reached at least 73,910 Palestinians, and at least 174,914 Palestinians have been reported injured in Gaza by the IDF.

In Gaza, the UN estimates 92% of housing units have been destroyed or damaged — a strategy researchers and a UN Human Rights Council report term domicide — alongside 84% of water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure, per a World Bank damage assessment.

These findings sit alongside a series of documented state policies. Israel enforced an 11-week total blockade on humanitarian aid between March and May 2025 and cut power to Gaza's main desalination plant. 

At least 859 Palestinians were killed near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites between late May and the end of July 2025, part of at least 1,373 killed while trying to reach food in that period, according to the UN. 

The 30 June 2025 strike on the al-Baqa café killed more than 40 people, among them photojournalist Ismail Abu Hatab. 

The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B'Tselem) has described Israel's detention facilities as a "network of torture camps", documenting at least 84 Palestinian deaths in custody since October 2023; other rights groups put the toll as high as 94, with Israeli authorities still withholding 80 of the bodies as of January 2026. 

Settler violence displaced at least 13 rural Palestinian communities in 2025 alone, affecting some 190 families, and OCHA has linked more than 700 displaced families to settler violence in the West Bank since January 2023. 

Israel's own Ministry of National Security data, cited by the rights group Adalah, records over 14,000 structures demolished in the Naqab/Negev region since 2023.

Graphics: TBS

The fire starter

Israel has a long history of initiating or launching major military campaigns against far bigger rivals, including the 1956 Suez Crisis, when Israeli forces invaded Egypt alongside Britain and France, and the 1967 Six-Day War, which began with Israel's pre-emptive air strikes against Egypt, Syria and Jordan. 

Israel also launched major invasions of Lebanon in 1978 and 1982, the latter aimed at expelling the Palestine Liberation Organisation from Lebanon, and has conducted repeated large-scale military operations in Gaza, including in 2008–09, 2014 and 2021. 

In 2023, following Hamas's 7 October attack, Israel launched its war in Gaza, which subsequently expanded into a broader regional confrontation involving Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran. 

In Lebanon, Israeli air and artillery strikes targeting Hezbollah across southern border towns and Beirut's Dahiyeh suburb have killed over 4,000 people and displaced 1 million despite ongoing truce negotiations. 

The conflict has escalated into direct Israel-Iran hostilities — marked by direct ballistic missile and drone exchanges — alongside multi-front attacks by Iran's "Axis of Resistance," including Houthi maritime strikes in Yemen and militia activity in Syria and Iraq. 

Unprecedented campaign against the press

Israel's efforts to control the narrative have coincided with an unprecedented assault on media freedom. 

In 2025, it was responsible for roughly two-thirds of journalist and media worker killings worldwide, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which attributed 86 of the year's 129 global press deaths to the Israeli military — more targeted journalist killings than any government's forces on record since CPJ began tracking in 1992.

Drone strikes have become a primary tool: Israel accounted for over 70% of the 39 documented drone killings of journalists worldwide in 2025, roughly 28 deaths. 

Among the dead were Hossam Shabat, of Al Jazeera Mubasher and Drop Site News, killed in a strike on his car near the Indonesian Hospital; Anas al-Sharif, killed with five colleagues in a strike on a press tent after months of unsubstantiated military allegations against him; and Mariam Abu Dagga and Hussam al-Masri, among five journalists killed in a 'double-tap' strike on Nasser Hospital.

Beyond Gaza, an Israeli strike on two state-run newspaper offices in Sanaa, Yemen on 10 September 2025 killed 31 Yemeni journalists and media workers — the deadliest single attack on the press anywhere in 16 years, according to CPJ. 

The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate has documented at least 706 journalists' family members killed in Gaza since October 2023, which it calls collective punishment. Israel fell to 112th of 180 countries in the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index.

Covert sabotage, spyware and foreign election interference

Israel's reach extends into covert operations and foreign political interference. 

Its Ministry of Defence licenses the export of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, used by foreign governments to surveil activists, journalists and politicians worldwide. 

Its Ministry of Diaspora Affairs has been linked to a covert influence operation run by the Tel Aviv-based firm Stoic, which reportedly used fake social media profiles and AI tools to target US lawmakers and Canadian discourse with anti-Muslim and pro-Israel messaging. 

Historically, Israel's record of covert action includes the 1954 Lavon Affair, in which agents planted bombs at Western targets in Egypt to frame local nationalists; the 2004 conviction of Israeli agents in New Zealand for passport fraud; and the 2010 assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai using forged British, Australian, Irish, French, and German passports. 

In the US, pro-Israel lobbying groups such as AIPAC have channelled tens of millions of dollars into primary elections to defeat critical candidates, at times through front groups such as "Elect Chicago Women". 

Former diplomats have also pointed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's record of direct intervention in US politics, including congressional addresses critical of sitting administrations.

Derailing the ICC

One of Israel's most aggressive extrajudicial campaigns was a nine-year covert operation against the International Criminal Court, reported to have run from 2015 to 2024. 

The Shin Bet, Mossad, Aman and Unit 8200 are alleged to have conducted surveillance, hacking and intimidation against ICC prosecutors Fatou Bensouda and Karim Khan, and against Palestinian rights groups such as Al-Haq. 

Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen is reported to have personally led operations against Bensouda — delivering cash and threatening notes to her home in The Hague and enlisting former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila to pressure her — while Israeli intelligence allegedly attempted a sting operation against her husband and used intercepted case details to launch domestic military probes solely to argue legal 'complementarity'.

Cultural deplatforming and industry blacklisting

Pro-Israel advocacy groups and private donors have actively sought to suppress cultural expression abroad. Macklemore was dropped from Ed Sheeran's US tour after declaring "Free Palestine" on stage, following a campaign by the Israeli-American Council and reported threats from venue owners, including Robert Kraft, to cancel stadium dates. 

Oscar-winner Javier Bardem faced internal Hollywood blacklisting after condemning Israeli war crimes; fellow Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon was dropped by talent agency UTA, and agent Maha Dakhil was forced from CAA leadership. 

StopAntisemitism has run public campaigns accusing Mark Ruffalo of antisemitic tropes after he highlighted corporate ties to Israeli military technology. 

Domestically, Israeli police have concentrated repression against anti-war dissent — most incitement cases under terror laws target Palestinian citizens of Israel — and an Israeli diplomat in Ireland reportedly proposed publishing private photographs and disinformation to embarrass Israeli expatriates critical of government policy.

Internal contradictions and accelerating global isolation

This posture masks deep internal paradoxes. While presenting itself as a democracy, Israel denies voting rights to millions of Palestinians under military occupation. Its relative poverty rate stood at 16.8 % in 2022, well above the OECD average of 11.7 %, alongside high income inequality and above-guideline air pollution — annual PM2.5 concentrations in 2025 ran at roughly 3.3 times the WHO guideline. 

Domestic violence has worsened too: the Israel Observatory on Femicide recorded 34 femicides in 2025, out of 44 women murdered in total, a 48% rise from 2024.

Global opinion has turned sharply against the state. A Pew Research Centre survey of 36 countries, conducted between February and May 2026, found that a median of 67% of adults hold an unfavourable view of Israel. 

Disapproval was highest in Turkey (97%) and across Asia-Pacific — Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan ranged from 83% to 95% — followed by Europe, where Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and the UK ranged from 69 to 78 %, and the Americas, where Canada, Chile and the United States ranged from 60% to 65%. 

Confidence in Netanyahu has similarly collapsed across Western and Asian nations.

Governments and civil society have responded in kind. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has gained traction across the arts, academia and sport. 

Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada have restricted or banned arms transfers to Israel; Britain, France and Canada have sanctioned illegal West Bank settlements; and Norway's sovereign wealth fund, Norges Bank, has divested from Caterpillar and major Israeli financial institutions over rights concerns in the occupied territories. 

As Netanyahu calls on Israel to become a "Super Sparta", its reliance on military force, intelligence manipulation, and international censorship has alienated long-standing allies, weakened international legal institutions, and deepened its global isolation.