The war on Hamas: Why Israel is losing
Israel’s war against Hamas is all but over. Hamas has won. Israel has lost.
Hamas’s goal was to do no more than provoke a war with Israel that would gain worldwide support for the Palestinian community. Hamas has succeeded in doing that. It was willing to sacrifice some of its own, the cities of Gaza, and many Palestinian civilians to achieve its goal. Few people outside the Palestinian community understood what was happening before it was too late.
Israel’s goal was to destroy Hamas. That has turned out to be impossible – and anything short of total destruction is a failure for Israel because Hamas will strike again.
Hamas had planned carefully for years. They knew exactly how to provoke the war they wanted. They did it in a single horrifying evening, on October 7, a date that may end up ringing as loud in memory for the world’s Jews as December 7 does for the United States.
So Hamas’s plan for that evening was to take as many hostages as possible and to commit brutal, heinous, and murderous acts against those it did not take.
It was designed to provoke Israel into a major and devastating war against Hamas in Gaza, which also happened to be home to some 2 million innocent Palestinian civilians.
Hamas planned the October 7 attack for years. It was not an attempt to defeat Israel and end its existence, even though that is Hamas’s stated goal in its charter. They knew they could not achieve the destruction of Israel.
Instead, they chose to provoke Israel into the strongest possible war against Hamas in Gaza.
They knew that much of Gaza would be destroyed. They knew that thousands of civilians would be killed. They knew that the country would fall into starvation.
At the same time, they also planned for much of their own survival by storing food supplies and fuel and building the most extensive protective underground tunnel system the world ever has known.
So the plan was for Hamas to survive, at least in part, while most of Gaza itself would be destroyed amid great suffering. The plan further was for Israel’s attack to turn worldwide support and sympathy away from Israel’s suffering on October 7. Memory is short. Instead, Israel would become the object of world hatred and Palestinians throughout the Middle East would be the object of worldwide sympathy.
Hamas would triumph in all the ways that were important to it. The plan has worked beyond their wildest expectations.
Its success also has become a major reason Hamas has been unwilling to move into serious negotiations with Israel for a cease-fire.
The war is working. Every day, there is more and more support for the Palestinian community. Why quit? What is the motivation to quit? Hamas believes that inevitably, Israel and the world will rebuild Gaza. From their perspective, there’s no rush to get started.
Netanyahu’s political troubles at home
Unfortunately, there is a powerful but much different motive that keeps Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from wanting to end the war.
He needs to continue this war as long as possible for his own benefit. He is perilously on the edge of being thrown out of power, and possibly into jail when the war against Hamas ends.
His legal troubles go back to 2016. He has been indicted on charges of fraud, accepting bribes, and breach of trust.
The indictments are based on several allegations of wrongdoing stretching over two decades during which Netanyahu has been in a position of power in Israel. These include:
Netanyahu and his wife allegedly received almost $200,000 in gifts over 20 years from two Israeli businessmen who were seeking beneficial treatment from the Israeli government relating to taxes and the treatment of investments. Netanyahu also is alleged to have used his connections with a top U.S. government official in trying to secure a visa for one of the businessmen who provided the gifts.
Netanyahu discussed an arrangement with the controlling owner of a large Israeli newspaper that would have provided more favorable news coverage of Netanyahu and his family in this newspaper plus more unfavorable news coverage of Netanyahu’s political opponents. In return, Netanyahu would be expected to help gain approval of legislation providing financial benefits to the newspaper.
Netanyahu allegedly promised regulatory changes that would be favorable to the owner of a communications conglomerate in exchange for favorable news coverage of Netanyahu and his family on a website owned by the company.
The trials involving these charges have been ongoing for about four years. The tactics Netanyahu has used in fighting these charges include a claim of immunity and endless attempts at delay. Sound familiar?
He also has attempted to restructure the Israeli judicial system in a way that would make it more difficult for him to be found guilty,
Perhaps Netanyahu was thinking about all of this when he decided to state publicly that Israel intended to destroy Hamas. Even if he thought Israel could make this happen, he would have known that it would take a long time. From his perspective, the longer the better.
For many, it did seem in October that Israel’s goal was the right and necessary action — and at that point, much of the world seemed to be on Israel’s side.
But looking back at it, a simple question should have been asked: Would it be possible to find and eliminate every last Hamas fighter in a 300-mile network of tunnels? The answer should have been obvious.
Two unfortunate consequences
Finally, there have been at least two unfortunate consequences of the war that Israel might have been able to reduce or minimize with more careful planning.
One is that collateral damage from Israel’s attack in Gaza would be inevitable, especially starvation among innocent people, and lack of sufficient health care for the wounded. Why didn’t Israel begin working on a plan six months ago to gather world support to feed and provide health care for Gaza’s innocent victims?
The other is that mistakes would be made in an air war of this scale. Why were there not procedures in place to prevent errors such as attacking aid workers?
In the end, Israel has succeeded only in wounding Hamas.
The next challenge will be to somehow begin repairing Israel’s image in the world. It will not be easy.
Evil begets evil...... begets evil..... begets evil.......... and the Palestinian people's lives are a nightmare and they are suffering in horrifying ways because the evil is coming from both sides this time.