The Middle East war joins Ukraine as a permanent site of conflict, the new model for superpower dominance in the age of collapse

~ Blade Runner ~

In just one year, the devastation has been staggering: since Hamas massacred 1,200 Israelis, Israel’s military onslaught has retaliated thirty-fold, with over 41,000 Palestinians killed, including 13,000 children and 115 infants born after October 7. More than 10,000 Gazans remain missing, buried under rubble. The entire population of Gaza—2.3 million people in an area smaller than 360 square kilometres—has been displaced, forced into extreme deprivation, and denied access to basic healthcare, food, and services.

83,000 tonnes of explosives have been dropped on Gaza, four times the explosive power used to obliterate Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Around 80% of homes in Gaza have been destroyed. It has systematically obliterated all universities, more than 70% of schools, 34 out of 36 hospitals, and countless other essential facilities: 165 health units, 137 ambulances, 611 mosques, all three churches, and 178 shelters in Gaza.

In Lebanon, over 2,000 people have died, and one million have been displaced. Another 600 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank. Israel has lost an additional 350 soldiers in Gaza, and 200,000 Israelis have been forced to abandon their homes near Gaza and along the northern borders with Lebanon. Hezbollah rocket fire has killed around 50 Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Israel is on an aggressive warpath, rapidly expanding its military operations across several fronts in the Middle East. The Israeli army has bombed extensive areas of Lebanon, invaded the southern part of the country, and threatened the population with total destruction, while also attacking targets in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria. In retaliation, Iran has launched one of the largest ballistic missile attacks in history, with Israel’s response potentially imminent.

This is what a Great War may look like in our times

Israel’s far-right government is locked in a perpetual cycle of escalation. History has shown that fascism, once in power, sustains itself through relentless aggression, using nationalist rhetoric to justify war and consolidate control. In this context, perpetual conflict is not an aberration but the strategy itself—a march toward devastation without end. With or without U.S. backing, this war machine is driven by ambitions to solidify the dominance of its sponsor’s military-industrial complex in the region.

Both Israel and Iran use nationalist and religious narratives to legitimise their aggression, framing their actions as necessary for security and the preservation of their nations. Israel’s leadership has stated its goal of reshaping the Middle East by neutralising regional adversaries, while promoting an ideology of Jewish supremacy. Meanwhile, Iran frames the conflict as a “holy war against the forces of evil” but relies on it to maintain its regional position, backed by China and Russia.

All the while, they play their roles in an Apocalypse War by proxy. The media portray it as suspended annihilation leading to the U.S. elections, hoping the crisis doesn’t escalate into World War III. But what if the Great War of our times has already begun?

This confrontation unfolds amid a global shift in the balance of power, as key actors vie for influence in a world economy defined by runaway climate change and bio-regional collapse. We have already been in cycles of warfare for about two decades, with background processes now shifting into higher gear.

In response to rising social unrest and financial crises, ruling elites have exploited rapid advancements in information technology and the fear created by the “War on Terror” to make advances in military force, surveillance, and disenfranchisement. Military budgets have surged not to safeguard peace, but to fuel ongoing conflicts arising from this restructuring process.

Consequently, the war in Ukraine has dragged on for over two years, ensnared in a fluid and unpredictable stalemate. The crisis in the Middle East is just the next (final?) chapter of a colonial war-game that has been going on for a century or more. It may go on forever—not only as far as the Israeli government is concerned. As long as global capitalism stumbles, refusing to fall, the capitalism-state duo’s hegemony will not give up the fight without a bang.

Calls for ceasefires, United Nations interventions, and arms embargoes may still be worth pursuing, but the Middle East crisis is not just a new iteration of fascist military expansionism. It is a battleground for a Great War by proxy, fought at an ever-higher intensity, as elites attempt to hoard whatever they can in a collapsing world.