We're very much on the same page. I have a lot of history with the country, although the longest consecutive time I've spent there is about 8 months.

Through my 1st cousin's marriage, I even have a relationship with the former head of Mossad in Europe and, at the time, I first met him, was the civilian administrator of the West Bank. And I spent about 6 months in Jerusalem in the very first ba'al tsuvah yeshiva in Jerusalem. Lots of funny stories, including the fact one of the teachers was the brother of Meir Kahane.

But much of what you describe about the state (small 's') was long ago worked out by the (perhaps now better known) Israeli demographer/geographer Arnon Soffer. It was he who gave Ariel Sharon the plan/reason to turn Gaza into a giant outdoor prison... because of the birthrates of the haredim, the birthrates of Arabs in the territories and the birthrates of those who must serve in the army. You can find a lot of info about him now on the web.

The great thing I like to point out about the current "problems" is that both Netanyahu and his fellow fascist Bezalel Smotrich have repeated their belief that Hamas was an "asset" that they could use to prevent any chance of a Palestinian state. We may also never know whether it was a coincidence that Netanyahu was facing some serious troubles and the location of the attack by Hamas on Israel was a well-known bastion of left-wing Israelis, including, of course, the Rave attendees.