Israel: Pressure builds for total victory while leaders stall - analysis

Eliyahu Tulshinski

October 14, 2023

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may be walking back his initial promise to destroy Hamas following its torture and massacre of over one thousand Jews. Politico quoted the Israel prime minister shortly after the attacks:

Speaking in a late-night televised address as Israeli planes pounded Gaza, Netanyahu said every Hamas member was a “dead man.”

“We will crush and destroy it,” he said of Hamas.

He said boys and girls were shot in the head by the invaders, and that people had been burned alive.

Mere pressure release mechanism?

Netanyahu's statement was a response to the shocking massacre. It may also have been a response to Netanyahu's having funded Hamas and protected its leaders from assassination. Netanyahu also allowed Hamas to train for years for just such a massacre, and to regularly approach the border fence by the hundreds, making it difficult to discern an actual attack from a drill.

The massacre resulted in nearly total agreement among Israeli Jews demanding the complete destruction of Hamas. Even pro-Hamas Al Jazeera reported on the unprecedented support from Israel's Left for an all-out war:

Empathy with Palestinians has gone as Israel prepares for ground invasion

The situation here remains very tense. We’ve seen the biggest call-up of Israeli reservists – 360,000 – and the sentiment here is one of revenge. They want to flatten Gaza. For now, Israel has attacked from the air, but judging from the amount of troops present at the border, a ground invasion is imminent.

When you talk to Israelis now, they are shocked, they are so horrified by what happened that it is very difficult for them to differentiate between Hamas and civilians. Among the Israelis who usually would have some empathy for Palestinians, that empathy seems to have gone – and that certainly is extremely concerning. [Emphases added].

Facing a wall of support for crushing Hamas, Netanyahu promised the public just that.

Climbing down from the tree

Since his “every Hamas member is a ‘dead man’” pledge, a number of trial balloons have been released testing the readiness of the Israeli public to accept less than complete victory.

Academics first

Al Jazeera quoted an Arab professor saying Israel will not attempt to retake control of Gaza, but will instead ask the PLO subsidiary known as the Palestinian Authority to do so. This assumes Israeli teenagers and young men will fight house-to-house against Hamas just to turn Gaza over to the PLO.

Retired official

Shaul Mofaz served as defense minister during the forced removal of Jews from Gaza in 2005. That evacuation, which Netanyahu supported in a key Knesset vote, turned Gaza over to the PLO which lost power to Hamas in a PLO controlled vote. This quickly led to the creation of the very regime predicted by opponents of the evacuation.

Now 74 years old, Mofaz threw cold water on the idea that his ceding Gaza to Israel's enemies could be reversed. Answering a question about the future of Gaza, the retired politician stated that not only would it not be possible to do so, but that, “we'll have more rounds of fighting with them in the future,” as well.

Inner circle

Netanyahu's Energy Minister Israel Katz then broke the news that Netanyahu does not actually mean to take over Gaza. An interviewer asked him whether she'll be able to walk around in Gaza after the war. He responded negatively.

There is no such intention. . . . We will kill those who want to exterminate us. I don't have any interest . . . no one is dreaming of being able to walk around in Gaza.

Is regime change enough?

Netanyahu's National Security Council head, as well, mentioned the government's goal of destroying Hamas but stopping short of saying who would control the Gaza strip “the day after.” Hanegbi's comments were recorded by the Times of Israel:

National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi reaffirms the cabinet’s war goal is remove Hamas from military and political control over the Gaza Strip, but declines to elaborate on planned next steps for the coastal enclave.

Hanegbi says that in a recent cabinet meeting, the government approved a plan to “destroy” Hamas, as stated by the prime minister and defense minister.

“Hamas will not be the ruler, the sovereign in Gaza after the combat,” he says. [Emphases added].

In just a few days the goal thus went from “every Hamas member was a 'dead man'” to “Hamas will not be the ruler.”

Times of Israel also reported that Israeli will allow food, water, and medicine into Gaza — although not fuel and electricity — to adhere to the “law of armed conflict":

A US lawmaker tells The Times of Israel that Israeli officials have indicated to them that they will allow food, water and medicine into Gaza after imposing a siege on the enclave, as Israel appears to be gearing up for a ground operation to destroy Hamas.

The let up on pressure will mean well fed Hamas fighters who will be difficult to pull out of tunnels, perhaps making it less realistic to kill every Hamas member who does not surrender as required.

Last but not least

Finally, Netanyahu himself appears to be backing away from his initial promises. In a Saturday visit to troops preparing to enter the dangerous alleys and tunnels of Gaza, believing they are going to eliminate all Hamas members, Netanyahu made no mention of “destruction” or “crushing,” choosing instead to refer simply to the “next stage.”

In a short clip showing him addressing troops stationed near the Israeli border with Gaza, Netanyahu can be seen asking IDF soldiers if they are ready for the "next stage" and making small talk.

Telling the men that "the next stage is coming," Netanyahu appeared to be affirming the widely held belief that a ground invasion of the enclave is imminent. [Emphasis added].

If not Israel, then who?

Former Knesset Member Moshe Feiglin offers a prediction of who Israel intends to place in charge of Gaza after Hamas — the very PLO that lost control of Gaza to Hamas in the first place. He posted his thoughts together with a Hebrew video of the above quoted interview with Minister Katz:

For those who had any doubt — Minister Israel Katz explains tonight, on the Patriots program, that there is no intention to conquer Gaza.

The meaning - even the massacre and horrors of the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah [last Saturday] did not remove the Israeli leadership from the Oslo conception [of conceding to one's enemy to make peace].

We will receive an improved round of events, ending with complete dependence on Americans and handing over Gaza to [PLO Chief] Abu Mazen - including providing Mazen with a safe passage between Gaza and Mount Hebron. [Emphasis added; translated from Hebrew].

Coincidence?

Feiglin's prediction matches that of Al Jazeera's analyst, though they may have arrived at the predictions independently. That is because Israel's deep state leaders have decided, since the 1991 Madrid Conference, that only the PLO and its affiliated organizations may represent the Arabs in Gaza, Judea and Samaria (referred to by mainstream media as the West Bank).

Thus, Israel ceded control of the territories to the PLO, without giving the local Arab populations the opportunity to choose their own leaders. This despite many Arabs not wishing to be led by the Marxist–Leninist parties that dominate the PLO council.

Instead of guaranteeing a free election for Arabs, Israeli leaders brought more than 10,000 PLO terrorists from exile in Tunisia into Israel and provided them with land, money, guns and control over the mostly unarmed Arab populations in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. Feiglin is not expecting anything different this time, should Hamas be overthrown, nor is Al Jazeera.

Victory

Sufficient pressure, though, from Israeli citizens now, during the war, could push Netanyahu to move forward to a complete victory, liberating the Gazan population from the tyranny of both Hamas and the PLO while freeing Israelis from the threat of future attacks.

See our additional coverage of Israel's deep state: