Ahmed Alqarout is a political economy expert specialising in the Middle East and North Africa region, with a focus on great power competition and the political economy of conflicts.
From this author
As the US and Israel escalate their assault on Iran, the Israeli regime has been constructing a war economy to sustain prolonged military campaigns while evading accountability. In September 2025, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israelis to transform the country into a “Super Sparta” of the Middle East—more militarized, economically self-reliant, and capable of sustaining protracted conflict despite mounting external pressure. This policy brief argues that this rhetoric reflects an emerging doctrine: a political-economic project structured around permanent national mobilization, preventative warfare, and accelerated defense-industrial expansion.
Yet the Israeli regime’s shift toward self-reliance is not producing full autarky. Instead, the war economy is consolidating into a hybrid model that combines domestic substitution in critical defense sectors with deeper integration into transnational supply networks, thereby dispersing sanctions risk. This configuration blunts the impact of conventional accountability tools, such as fragmented or weakly enforced arms embargoes. As a result, effective international responses must move beyond traditional sanctions frameworks and instead target the material infrastructure and dependency nodes that sustain Israel’s war economy.
This commentary examines the evolving ties between MENA countries and BRICS, focusing on the prospective Palestinian membership in the bloc and the group’s rationale for extending the invitation. It argues that BRICS membership can reconfigure the discussion around Palestinian sovereignty beyond the bounds of US alignment with Israeli policies. As the commentary details, BRICS membership could also greatly benefit the Palestinian economy by bolstering cooperation among members in areas driving economic development, including the energy and logistics sectors and artificial intelligence.
In March 2023, after months of protests over Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial overhaul, Israel gave far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir the go-ahead to establish a national guard. The force, to be composed of an initial 1,800 officers and with an operating budget of one billion NIS ($273 million), will primarily assist Israeli police during “security” emergencies.
