New Delhi, June 23 -- Long before Samuel Huntington gave it academic legitimacy, Israel began promoting the notion of a "clash of civilizations" as a strategic tool in the post-Cold War era. The purpose was clear: to position Israel as the vanguard of "Judeo-Christian civilization" under siege, thereby justifying its continued exploitation of U.S. power and resources. This ideological framing, packaged later by Huntington as a cultural theory, was in fact a geopolitical instrument aimed at sustaining American military and diplomatic support for Israel's regional ambitions.

This framework is no longer theoretical. Israel has actively applied the "clash of civilizations" logic in its wars against Hamas in Gaza and, more recently, in its at...