IThe planned capture of the Srael of Gaza will be an act of destructive futility. This solves absolutely nothing. It will only pile fresh military, humanitarian and political problems in the mountains of those who have been created in the conflict. This will make every human suffering worse, not better. Governments around the world should do whatever they can – the US above all – to stop it.
There is still time. The plan announced on Friday was for an operation to control the military of Gaza City, home to a million transferred Palestinians. They were forced to evacuate, but again, on the Southern Gaza strip in the coming weeks. The distribution of assistance will surely be a secondary consideration, logically challenging and incredible -not enough for a population where malnutrition is severe. The life threat to Gaza, including the remaining Israeli hostages obtained on 7 October 2023, was worse.
The announcement of Friday opens the question of whether the operation will be expanded later throughout the Gaza strip. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said this is what he wants. The current decision to limit the acquisition seems to reflect the objections from the leaders of Israel Defense (IDF). But there is no guarantee that a larger acquisition will not follow. Mr Netanyahu has always been in the process. The sum of his choices is worth the eternal war.
It is a strategy that ensures, at the moment, that Mr. Netanyahu remains in power. But it does not guarantee a military success. It rises in fighting Hamas without any way to end it. Twenty months of attacks can ruin Hamas, but the capacity to mounted a limited lip of the uprising. Such insurgency is difficult to defeat, as the US found in Vietnam and Iraq, and Britain has learned from the former Empire and Northern Ireland. “Everyone is going to this meat grinder,” an old Israeli former graphic soldier told BBC this week.
Suffering will also be felt in Israel. The plan can be a death penalty for 20 or so living hostages. It can also guarantee that the bodies of about 30 believed to be dead will be lost forever. Mr. Netanyahu’s decision, in effect, to punish Hamas above the release of Israeli hostages will make their families suffer and deepen political divisions in domestic. The lame in the Israeli society is intense, along with IDF leaders who oppose Gaza acquisition and dispute unsuccessful for more target operations. Now more Israeli soldiers will also die.
Takeover shows how Cavalierly Mr Netanyahu wants to deepen Israel’s political separation as long as he has Washington support. Other foreign governments condemned the plan. Britain said it was “wrong” and “just bring more bloodshed”. Germany, Israel’s second largest military supplier, puts a ban on weapons for use in Gaza, a significant step. In realpolitic terms, however, everything goes down in the US. President Trump must condemn the plan for getting and matching German stance. US allies should assert that he does this. Hamas’s allies should also be hit.
Mr. Netanyahu’s approach is not just wrong. This will make it worse, worse for the people of Gaza in the short term above all, but worse than Israelis in the long run too. His policy is the exact type of historical ignorance that historian Barbara Tuchman is well described as “a bent persistence in a policy that cannot work or counter-productive”. Mr. Netanyahu sows the dragon’s teeth in the coming year, and he gets better sooner.
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