Israel Occupation / Apartheid

Ahmed Alqarout· Executive Summary In September 2025, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israelis to transform the country into a “Super Sparta” of the Middle East—more militarized, economically self-reliant, and capable of sustaining protracted conflict despite mounting external pressure. This policy brief argues that this rhetoric reflects an emerging doctrine: a political-economic project structured around permanent national mobilization, preventative warfare, and accelerated defense-industrial expansion. Yet the Israeli regime’s shift toward self-reliance is not producing full autarky. Instead, the war economy is consolidating into a hybrid model that combines domestic substitution in critical defense sectors with deeper integration into transnational supply networks, thereby dispersing sanctions risk. This configuration blunts the impact of conventional accountability tools, such as fragmented or weakly enforced arms embargoes. As a result, effective international responses must move beyond traditional sanctions frameworks and instead target the material infrastructure and dependency nodes that sustain Israel’s war economy. Recommendations Civil society and grassroots movements should exert pressure by expanding campaigns beyond consumer boycotts to focus on logistical and service infrastructures. Maritime supply chains remain a key leverage point: coordinated dockworker actions and port disruptions can impose direct costs on arms transfers. Targeting insurers, certification bodies, freight intermediaries, and port services can further raise the risks associated with transporting military cargo to Israel. Technology-sector organizing represents a second vector of leverage. Israel’s defense innovation ecosystem remains deeply embedded in global cloud infrastructure, AI services, and data-processing platforms. Campaigns such as No Tech for Apartheid demonstrate how worker organizing, procurement challenges, and shareholder...Click here to continue reading