The Apartheid state is powerful militarily and has zero credibility and moral authority. Over the years the Apartheid state and its supporters in western political and media mainstreams have done a reasonable job in falsely portraying the Apartheid state in positive terms using dishonesty, bigotry and sometimes pure racism. Lot of that is visible in the Apartheid state’s supporters posts in this forum.
However, the ongoing genocide in Gaza has exposed the truth about the Apartheid state to many in the west who haven’t been victims of the Apartheid state’s propaganda, in particular the younger generation. For obvious reasons, the Gaza genocide has been a propaganda disaster for the Apartheid state. Hence it needs to turn this conflict into a regional one because a conflict between the Apartheid state and Hezbollah and/or Iran will be viewed differently by the western public to a genocidal slaughter of Palestinians. The Apartheid state needs the conflict fought on its terms, on its strength, which is brute violence.