43 days after the undisturbed massacre of Hamas and since the capture of the 242 hostages, 219 of which are in the hands of Hamas militiamen, while the rest are said to be at the mercy of other, unidentified groups, the situation is in Gaza Strip All the catastrophic predictions of the first hour were exceeded with horror. But what’s more? alarming And difficult What needs to be understood is the obsessive repetition of the “extinction” of Hamas by the “extended” Israeli government, which unfortunately still clings to Netanyahu’s claim of personal revenge, a months-long operation that, according to the generals’ reliable forecasts, lasted.
And it’s not just the time that pays off unrealistic the determination to move forward, despite the evidence that the military destruction of Hamas simply means the pulverization of the entire Gaza Strip.
It is not only the international community, which has expressed its opinion within the United Nations, that wants to oppose an exclusively tactical plan without a political and decisive approach like Netanyahu’s; Europe with an urgent warning Josep Borrell “One horror does not justify another”; The American ally, which had immediately warned Israel against repeating the West’s mistakes with ISIS, has now bluntly described this as unimaginable Completely destroy Hamas.
It is the Israelis who proclaim the utter unreliability of a commander-in-chief who clings to the extraordinary power bestowed upon him by Hamas’s massive ambush, and who tragically realize the magnitude of his boundless ambition and need to guarantee what he desires , are impunity Conflict with the need for future peace and security for the country.
According to the latest polls Netanyhau 4% of voters and 6% of those in his political camp consider him “credible”. And the numerous demonstrations by the relatives of the hostages, even under his house, confirm the widespread awareness that is very clearly expressed in the pages of the newspaper Haaretz that the compelling slogan “We will continue to the end” to eliminate all the organizers and perpetrators of the October 7 massacres is very little calming. In addition to having no political significance, over time it also tragically clashes with the solemn and repeated promise to family members to bring home the over 240 hostages, even more so after the complete termination of negotiations with Hamas .
The time factor inexorably confirms the diagnosis Tranchant which the French political scientist, specialist in Islam and the Arab world, had already done at the end of October Gilles Kepel: “If Israel wants to emerge from this crisis, it must get rid of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Today, many Israelis are wondering whether it is appropriate to eliminate him before the military offensive because he no longer has political legitimacy” (The pressure, 10/31/23). But despite growing internal distrust and international discredit, he remains chairman the war cabinet and has to admit for the first time that theand “targeted operations” To Gazawith over 11,000 confirmed casualties, “was unable to ensure the safety of civilians.”
Instead of a targeted and proportionate response Modus operandi to Gaza by Israel the smoking ruins and hospitals pulverized by Russian fighter-bombers in Aleppo in December 2016. And to better understand that Al-Shifa Hospital is in every sense a “war zone,” it is enough to recall the stark, frightening truth revealed at the time by Bashar al-Assad’s military leaders: After the hospitals were destroyed, the insurgents’ losses were four times higher because without help the seriously injured, an average of three for every deceased, became corpses themselves. So, apart from the likely use of the hospitals as a refuge for Hamas militants, evidence of their stationing in the basements is not particularly relevant for Tel Aviv.
Meanwhile, the intensification of military pressure on Gaza may reflect Israel’s desire to close this front more quickly, in the face of the opening of another, if possible, even more catastrophic front West Bank. In the territories, since October 7, the arms race of illegal Israeli residents has been encouraged by the Ministry of National Security, and tensions between the ultra-Orthodox settlers and the Palestinians, who are the subjects of real manhunts, are at the highest level.
The one that prevails in Gaza as in the West Bank is “The philosophy of martyrdom“. As he explains, alarmed Sari Nusselbeh, philosophy professor, member of the Palestinian Authority, intellectual of international repute “I don’t hear protests, but calls for holy war. The new generations in Gaza had never gone beyond the network. They now see the Hamas guerrillas as heroes for opening their prison. I see many similarities between the ideology of martyrdom of Hamas and that of the Jewish settlers.” (Interview from November 16th courier). The Religious radicalism which has grown disproportionately in the Netanyahu era, is proving to be one of the triggers of the frightening scenario we are facing and which could explode even further.