New Delhi, March 17 -- "If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel."

This stark, binary statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long been one of the most repeated and most disputed quotes in conversations around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Today, with Israel and Iran having fought two direct wars in less than a year, it reads less like political rhetoric and more like a doctrine in active use.

Netanyahu's argument is one of survival. Israel, he contends, only exists because it defends itself. Remove that defence, and the state ceases to exist.

Armed resistance from its adversaries is framed as the sole drive...