via The Cradle
After five months of fighting, Israel has been unable to defeat Hamas’ Qassam Brigades or push Hezbollah away from the Lebanese border
Israeli forces on the border with Lebanon on 11 October, 2023. (Photo Credit: Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
Etzion told Hebrew Channel 13 that “it is not a coincidence that the government did not solve the Hamas problem in the Gaza Strip after five months of war,” explaining that it “created unrealistic expectations for the battle in the south and continues to do so regarding the northern front.”
He explained that “no change will occur, even if the fighting continues for a year in this way, and even in the most optimistic circumstances, and the government knows that.”
“There are no short wars, neither in the north nor in the south, and there are no purely military solutions to our problems, neither in the north nor in the south,” Etzion concluded.
“The Israeli public must realize this and wake up from its expectations … The government must stop lying to the public.”
Al-Mayadeen adds that political affairs analyst for Channel 13, Rafif Drucker, stated that pushing Hezbollah away from the border was only a “dream” the army had now woken up from. The Israeli military “is now unable to invade Lebanon and establish a belt up to the Litani River, or to remove all Hezbollah elements from the border,” and “what is happening in Gaza is evidence of that.”
On 29 February, The Wall Street Journal acknowledged that “Israel is still far from its declared war aim of eliminating Hamas as a significant military and political entity.”
“Fighting the enemy is like a game of whack-a-mole,” an Israeli reservist in Khan Yunis with the 98th Division told the paper. He said many soldiers feel the army has no plan and wonder why they are fighting. “It will be very hard to destroy Hamas,” he concluded.
Part of the difficulty lies in destroying Hamas’s vast tunnel network, which it uses as military headquarters and to move across Gaza’s cities, protect its leaders, hide Israeli captives, manufacture weapons, and conduct hit-and-run attacks.
“Until you take all of this away from Hamas, you won’t be able to beat it,” said Guy Aviad, a researcher on Hamas and a former Israeli officer.
Hamas also continues to have significant manpower despite suffering significant losses. Hamas leaders in Gaza have told Egyptian officials that although the group’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, has lost at least 6,000 men killed, another 24,000 still remain.
The only solution is a secular Palestine to the whole 1947 boundaries, organise as a Co-operative Commonwealth, adhering to the Internationally agreed Co-operative Definition,Values and principles as in the UCA Statement (for which, please see http://www.interestfreemoney/papers where I have placed a copy of that, or, with more difficulty, at http://www.ica.coop
You can hold peace talks until the cows come home, there will be never be a two state solution. The Jews want the gas fields off Gaza and that’s all there is to it. After all Palestinians are out of Gaza, it’s the Golan Heights turn for the seizure of the oil fields. Once The demonic state is entirely self sufficient with it’s energy needs, they will run amok in the Middle East and then the rest of the world; those are the instructions of the Talmud and the Deuteronomy. The killing will never stop!