That’s not congruent with the facts. If Israel wanted only to guarantee its own security, it could have accepted the Arab Peace Initiative, but deemed withdrawing to the pre-1967 borders unacceptable. It wants to guarantee its own security, to be sure, but it also really, really wants more land.

Israel could genocide the Palestinians in a few hours, but then the international community would bomb their asses back to the stone age.

But, if they were to say, fund a religious extremist or two (which they totally did in the beginning), and then look the other way as that extremist starts up a terrorist organization or two, then the Israeli leaders can constantly be in a state of “protecting themselves” and easily maintain their own power in government.

Plus the constant low level terrorist attacks justify more oppression and theft of land, and any time there’s international pushback about the oppression or theft of land, you see a larger terrorist attack.

If I were conspiracy minded, I’d say that there are mossad plants in Hamas who gently nudge when Israeli leaders need a distraction.