“Don’t mess with Texas” was a slogan used to promote a campaign aimed at reducing littering on Texas highways. Indirectly, it also describes the nature of Texans – by and large, they are law-abiding, warm, and friendly individuals.
But try to enter their property without permission, and you’ll quickly find out that in Texas, the sign “no trespassing” means it’s legal to shoot you.
Israel's containment policy
Since its victory in the 1967 war, Israel has followed a policy of containment and restraint towards its neighbors. This attitude was backed by self-deceiving concepts that our enemies are deterred by our military might and will not dare to attack us.
We turned a blind eye when the Egyptians were amassing forces and practicing war maneuvers, only to be surprised when they launched the 1973 war.
For over a decade, we let the PLO build an army on our northern border with Lebanon until we decided to dismantle it in 1982. We then repeated the same error with Hezbollah for over three decades.
Even in 2006, we stopped short of eliminating this threat and accepted instead the faulty UN resolution 1701 as a fig leaf that allowed Hezbollah to continue building its forces to a point that made it one of the strongest armies in the Middle East.
This containment policy reached its peak in the way we ignored the Hamas threat in Gaza. In retrospect, the writing was very clearly written on the wall, but our false beliefs, coupled with unjustified hubris, paved the road to the October 7 disaster.
Shift in Israel's strategy
The shocking pain of the October 7 massacre caused a major shift in Israel’s strategic thinking. Whether in Gaza, Lebanon, or Syria, Israel is no longer willing to tolerate the presence of hostile forces around it.
On all three fronts, the IDF has established buffer zones outside Israel’s borders, cleared them of buildings and infrastructure that could be used against us, and adopted a no-nonsense tactic of neutralizing risks before they have a chance to hurt us.
While the containment policy was killed on October 7, 2023, its formal funeral took place only on June 13, 2025. The preemptive strike on Iran sends a clear message to Israel’s adversaries – don’t mess with us.
From now on, we will not tolerate any buildup of threats against us, no matter if it’s close to home in Israel itself or thousands of kilometers away – if you plan to hurt us and prepare the means to do so, we’ll come after you and eliminate the threat before it can be implemented.
Victory over the evil regime in Iran now seems within reach, and let’s hope that we get there soon. Once achieved, we should stay vigilant and avoid falling back into the same containment trap as we did before.
At the same time, we should follow the Texan example of being friendly to our neighbors by respecting their cultures and various religions, helping them in times of trouble (flooding, earthquakes, etc.), and welcoming peaceful collaborations leading to mutual benefits to all parties involved.
But, above all, we have to make sure that everyone around us sees and understands the sign: “Don’t mess with Israel.”
The writer is a professor and former executive vice president of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. An expert in management science, he serves as a board member and as a consultant to various companies and organizations.