When Netanyahu says that the Gaza issue cannot be resolved without uprooting Hamas, it implies that among the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, all the elderly are either former Hamas members or sympathizers. All doctors, patients, teachers, craftsmen, and farmers are seen as the backbone of Hamas. All women have either given birth to Hamas supporters or are still doing so, and all the children born will, in 14-15 years, pose a renewed threat to Israel. Therefore, according to this logic, they are all to be eradicated because they are all Hamas. Either they should leave Gaza or leave this world.
Israeli military machinery is being used to implement this Netanyahu doctrine, which enjoys open or tacit support from 90% of Israeli citizens. Hence, any peace deal that includes a condition to prevent the killing of all these “Hamas” members is unacceptable to the current Israeli establishment.
Thus, despite the United Nations’ resolutions for ceasefire, the International Court of Justice’s legal opinions, the Biden Plan’s three-phase peace plan, protests by Israeli hostages’ families for a ceasefire, and even the Israeli military high command’s declaration that eradicating Hamas is impractical, Netanyahu’s vision of uprooting Hamas remains unchanged. For this fascist government, no peace plan is acceptable until the last Palestinian in Gaza is eliminated.
This year, Hitler expressed a similar resolve, stating that peace would only be acceptable to the Nazis if everyone became their slaves or perished. However, the rest of the world did not accept these terms, and peace was established only after Hitler’s downfall. But that was the old era; this is a new, civilized, and developed century. That was Nazi Germany; this is today’s Israel. Yet, there is a clear disparity between the words and actions of global leaders and their subordinates.
Unlike the Israeli interpretation, other researchers view Hamas as an armed political organization with a trained force estimated between 80,000 to 100,000 before October 7. Its weapons came from smuggled arms and rudimentary homemade arms industry. Its strategy involves a network of underground tunnels in Gaza. It has support from Qatar, Iran, Yemeni Houthis, and Lebanese Hezbollah. Qatar has now positioned itself as a mediator.
In 2006, Hezbollah formed a government in Gaza following electoral success. Despite this, Israel, the US, and most Western countries avoided direct dealings with it, considering it a terrorist organization. However, it symbolically remained part of the Palestinian Authority, which has, after several years, recognized Hamas again due to Chinese mediation.
The Israeli military claims to have destroyed 75% of Hamas’s military strength, eliminated more than half of the underground tunnels, and killed about 15,000 active armed militants in the past ten months. Similarly, a comparable number of guerilla fighters were injured, and 4,000 are in Israeli custody.
However, the Jerusalem Post reports that as soon as Israeli forces withdraw from an area, Hamas begins recruiting youths over 18. These are the youths who have nothing left, and Israel has effectively sown the seeds for another vengeful generation. The dream of securing Israel’s borders by eliminating Hamas has, in fact, made those borders even more insecure due to the anger of at least one more Palestinian generation.
Even after ten months, when Gaza has turned into a heap of rubble, a few rockets still fall on Israel from Gaza. These rockets are not just rockets; they are slaps on Israel’s face, despite the killing of over 40,000 people, injuring around 100,000, and displacing 2 million.
Hamas has broken down its battalions, and its fighters now operate in small groups of one, two, five, or ten. Finding them among crowds of refugees is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Therefore, the solution proposed is to destroy entire areas where there is a suspicion of Hamas presence. This strategy is also failing.
In the past ten months, Israel has claimed to have killed thousands of Hamas members, yet there has been no report of any armed unit or even a small group of Hamas fighters surrendering to the Israeli military. Hamas fighters are operating like flies buzzing around, causing Israel to hit itself in frustration. It has become evident over these ten months that despite Israel’s immense power, it is far from invincible.
Israeli claims of destroying Hamas aside, even Israel’s supporters are not ready to accept them. American intelligence sources say that Israel has only managed to destroy 30-35% of Hamas’s military strength and only 35% of the underground tunnels. More are ready to join than those who die.
The mistake Israel is making today is one that the US made fifty years ago in Vietnam and twenty-five years ago in Afghanistan. Yet, Israel believes it will succeed where others have failed.
The bad news for Israel is that history’s graveyard is filled with states that perished in their delusion of invincibility. Today, they are mere lessons for tourists.