Aside from the regional policy function, and economic benefits, one of the core reasons for Israeli military action, whether in Gaza or anywhere else, is to divert domestic attention away from the severe internal problems the Zionist project faces. It is the same reason behind much of America’s War on Terror. It is a tactic for pacifying and controlling the domestic population, muting any discussion of their grievances in order to prosecute a war for Israel’s “existential security”.
Because the reality is that Israel is a severely dysfunctional and divided society. As I have said before, it is not a state, but it has a population who expect it to act like one. They think they are living in a country, like other countries, and can’t grasp that they are participants in an unsustainable colonialist experiment. This creates internal tension.
As these tensions, and the various sources of these tensions (unemployment, poverty, income disparity, high cost of living, uneven taxation policies, etc) worsen, Israel becomes less and less viable. It is therefore in our interest to explore ways to exacerbate these problems. However, it is also predictable that as these tensions worsen, Israeli military actions will increase and intensify.
The closer Israel gets to its demise, the more violent and adventurous it will become. But ultimately, it will not be able to prolong its existence solely on the basis of its military function, the dynamics of world power and control are changing too much for Israel to assume it will be indefinitely useful to the global power system.