"The fact that both Israel and the US are working day in, day out to diminish the capabilities of Iran, that's beyond my most utopian fantasies. "

America's decision to jointly wage war on Iran opened-up possibilities for Israel to attack its old enemy in new ways – officials here talk of dividing up targets with their US counterparts according to their respective capabilities.

As US president Donald Trump talks of winding up the joint offensive in Iran, Israeli forces are still holding territory in Gaza and Syria, with new instructions from their defence minister to take a large swathe of southern Lebanon as a "buffer zone" against Iran's ally Hezbollah.

Some 600,000 people living inside this new 'security zone' have been told they will not be allowed back to their homes until Israel deems its northern communities safe from Hezbollah attacks.

Mr Katz has ordered the destruction of all houses in Lebanese villages near the border, in the same way his forces razed communities in Gaza. "Donald Trump might make a decision that there are no more [Iranian] targets relevant to the nuclear capabilities, and that he would like some kind of ceasefire, and whatever he will do, we will accept," Hangebi told me. "[But] we'll go forward in Lebanon. We'll keep on doing it, and I'm sure America won't tell us, 'No'. "

Israel's military strategy in the region changed after the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, from a policy of 'containing' its enemies with occasional operations, to one of pre-empting attacks.

That shift has pulled Israel into direct confrontation with Iran, but also led to a policy of creating so-called 'buffer zones' in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon – wide areas of territory that Israel has seized from its neighbours for what it terms security reasons; the result of a repeated failure to turn military might into sustainable peace.

On Tuesday, just before the Jewish holiday of Passover, Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel had inflicted 10 "plagues" on the regime in Tehran, including the establishment of "deep security belts beyond our borders – in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon".

"The buffer zone approach is seen as an insurance policy that gives Israel flexibility and buys it time, linked to the wider change in Israel's security doctrine since the 7 Oct attacks," said Burcu Ozcelik, a specialist in Middle East strategy at UK's Royal United Services Institute (Rusi).

For the past two and a half years, Benjamin Netanyahu has led his country in a continuous rolling conflict with Iran and its allies around the region, each time promising that the next war would restore Israel's security and vanquish its enemies.

"It never happens because Israel is behaving like an unpredictable warmongering actor that might snatch territory," Scheindlin said.

"Israel's attack on Iran and Lebanon, and its encroachment into Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, is creating incredible anxiety that Israel is not a good ally in their shared concern about Iran, but that it is a dangerous ally. "

Israel's security has been a political mantra for Benjamin Netanyahu during his decades in office.

In the early days of the war in Iran, he said Israel had already changed the Middle East, and its own power within it, but more than a month into the campaign the regime in Tehran is still in power, still firing missiles at Israel, and still in possession of its stockpile of highly-enriched uranium – enough, experts say, to make around a dozen nuclear bombs if further refined.

Support for the war among Jewish Israelis was initially estimated at above 90%, in a poll by the Israel Democracy Institute.

Since then, it has dropped by almost 20 points, but the prime minister still enjoys majority backing for the war – even though surveys suggest support for him and his party in the upcoming elections has barely moved.

"The problem is that no political opposition leader is saying something totally different: advancing diplomacy; strengthening states in the region; working more closely with Arab states; solving the Palestinian issue – nobody is offering that," said Dahlia Scheindlin.

"We cannot reach an agreement with Iran about anything, because they don't recognise our very existence.

We only have dialogue through missiles, or whatever they do, and we do

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