About the declared Israeli political goals of the war on Gaza!

Despite the high military ceiling set by Israel for its operation, which turned into a bloody war against the Gaza Strip, which is expressed in statements such as “eliminating and crushing Hamas” and “dismantling Hamas and undermining its ruling authority,” the political goals of this war, as he sees it, are To many commentators and observers, it is still marred by ambiguity and lack of clarity, and thus it opens the door to many different and even contradictory interpretations and interpretations of military objectives and missions, and makes its announced high ceiling an open and debatable issue.

The "Ynet" website, affiliated with the "Yedioth Ahronoth" newspaper, reported that some of the ministers who are members of the "Extended Security Council" complained that the plan related to the continuation of the war and ground maneuvers is too abbreviated, while deep differences of opinion emerged among the ministers who are members of the mini-security council (Cabinet). War) who defended this plan, and among the ministers who are not members of it, while the Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant, made it clear that Israel is not interested in occupying the Gaza Strip.

The delay in moving to the ground operation raises many question marks related to the hesitation and fear of the Israeli army and the political leadership, led by Netanyahu, that this operation will falter and cause great losses among its soldiers, which will add another failure to the failure that befell them and was the cause of the war.

In this context, political analyst in the newspaper "Haaretz", Yossi Verter, reported that various circles in the ruling Likud Party are not confident that Netanyahu will go to the end this time and implement what he promised in 2008 to eliminate Hamas, and they say that he is "afraid of doing so." . These circles expressed their fear that Netanyahu would maneuver so as not to complete the mission in the Gaza Strip, as they put it. Haaretz quoted a Likud source familiar with security and intelligence issues as saying, “Netanyahu intends to carry out a serious operation in the Gaza Strip, but it is local. He talks about a strategic and historical process, but from what I hear from various sources, that will not happen.”

The source added that Netanyahu will say, “We undermined, eliminated, and brought calm for generations to come,” but he will again do only partial work, which was confirmed to Haaretz by a Cabinet member who is not from Likud. He said that he does not see a correspondence between the statements and the military plans, while another Knesset member mentioned From Likud, what happened during Operation Protective Edge, when the public demanded a large-scale operation, so Netanyahu leaked a slide indicating that 400 soldiers were killed in such an operation, which led to fear and a decline in popular pressure.

In Israel, they blame Netanyahu and hold him responsible for the growing power of Hamas, as he is the one who has a tendency to strengthen Hamas and weaken the Palestinian Authority. In fact, his policy is part of the strategy of the Israeli right, which is based on dismantling the Palestinian issue by perpetuating the Palestinian political and geographical division and thus isolating Gaza and annexing large parts of the West Bank to Israel. And eliminating the possibility of establishing an independent Palestinian state.

In addition to the presentation of this strategy to Netanyahu in dealing with the war on Gaza, despite the great motive for revenge, he is the only one among the political and military leadership who did not acknowledge failure and take responsibility upon himself, as others did, and he looks at the aftermath of the war on Gaza and its impact on His political future, especially since he failed to include all opposition parties in the emergency government he formed, led by the largest opposition party, Yesh Atid, which conditioned its entry on the removal of the religious Zionist parties, Smotrich and Ben Gvir, from it, which Netanyahu rejected.

In this context, Yossi Melman said in response to the resounding Israeli statements that the feeling of revenge is not a substitute for strategy and making rational decisions based on the soundness of opinion and not on what is possible or desirable. He believes that the overwhelming desire of Netanyahu, Gallant and other ministers for the necessity of killing Hamas members and annihilating their weapons, It aims primarily to satisfy the desire of Israeli public opinion in the wake of the anger, shock, and loss of balance that befell it.

The expert in security issues points out in an article published by “Haaretz” that Israel is standing still, despite the recruitment of 350,000 soldiers and the passage of nearly two weeks, and the ground operation has not yet come to light, and he believes that this waiting reflects weakness and hesitation and weakens the mandate and global legitimacy. granted to Israel so far.

Melman says that Hamas has 20,000 fighters and 30,000 missiles. With a simple calculation, eliminating its manpower and missile force would require two months of fighting in the heart of the Gaza Strip. The question here is: Can Israel recruit a reserve of 350,000 soldiers for two months? Does it guarantee that the outcome of the war will be the elimination of Hamas’ human and missile power and that at the end of the war, it will not launch rockets into Tel Aviv again? In this context, it is mentioned that previous battles in Lebanon and Gaza began with a loud thud and ended with weakness and defeat.

Source: Arab 48