Israel is struggling to destroy Hamas, but it’s destroying Gaza
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Israel is struggling to destroy Hamas, but it’s destroying Gaza (msn.com)
Amid mounting pressure on Israel from Western allies to rein back its campaign against Hamas, Israeli President Isaac Herzog held the line . “We intend to take over the entire Gaza Strip and change the course of history,” he said during a Tuesday interview facilitated by the Atlantic Council , a Washington-based think tank. Herzog said that the current conflict is a clash of “a set of civilizational values” and cast the Palestinian militant group, which carried out the brutal Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, as a “force of evil.”
Before the outbreak of war, Herzog was widely seen as more dovish and reasonable in the eyes of the D.C. foreign policy establishment than Israel’s polarizing right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But since the attack, he and many other Israeli officials have taken a hard line, scoffing at global criticism of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, while rejecting talk of a cease-fire to save Palestinian lives and alleviate a hideous humanitarian crisis.
Another vote over the matter is expected at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, with diplomats wrangling into the late hours Tuesday over a resolution that would not elicit a U.S. veto. A staunch backer of Israel, the Biden administration nevertheless appeared willing to signal its displeasure with the spiraling Palestinian death toll — now close to 20,000 people — at the world’s leading decision-making body, though, according to my colleague Karen DeYoung , it was pushing for wording calling for a “suspension of hostilities” rather than a cease-fire.
Separately, a potential one-week pause may be in the offing if Hamas follows through with a release of some three dozen hostages still held captive in Gaza. But Israeli officials are clear they are settling in for a long war. Herzog, adept at speaking to the Beltway set, said Israel would no longer tolerate Gaza being a “platform for Iran” — a reference to Hamas’s main foreign backers — “driving everyone into the abyss of bloodshed and warfare.”
Hamas is entrenched and difficult to defeat. Even after waging one of the most intense, heavy military campaigns in recent history, Israel has only neutralized a fraction of the militant group’s armed strength. And, in the process, it has ravaged the embattled territory where Hamas has held sway, displaced close to 90 percent of the population, flattened whole neighborhoods, triggered a sprawling humanitarian disaster and found itself flailing in a losing battle for global public opinion.
Gaza’s hospitals are in a state of collapse, with only a few capable of operating. Disease and hunger stalk the territory. Sanitation systems have failed. There’s little electricity, and almost no cooking gas. My colleagues talked to Palestinians who spend hours each day in desperate searches for food and water. “We have been humiliated by this war,” Khalil Tafesh, a father, said. “At the end of the day, we just want to live. Children just want to eat and drink. As a parent you will do everything you can to provide your kids food to eat.”
Concerns are only deepening about the smoldering status quo. Much of Gaza’s once-densely populated north has been leveled, and the bulk of the territory’s population is crammed into makeshift accommodations near the southern Rafah border crossing with Egypt. The prospect of an exodus of refugees is becoming more real — a displacement that would be viewed by many in the region as yet another tragic moment of Palestinian dispossession, a trauma that would further roil the politics of the Middle East and likely undermine Israel’s rapprochement with some of its Arab neighbors.
“Whether that [refugee flow] happens as a result of a deliberate Israeli military strategy or by default … that may be a distinction without a difference,” a former senior Egyptian diplomat told my colleague Claire Parker .
Israel’s Gaza war raises fears of a Palestinian exodus into Egypt
All the while, Hamas, while bruised, has not been beaten. Israel is seeking to decapitate its military leadership and eliminate much of its military capacity. The ongoing campaign has proved difficult, no matter Israel’s far superior capabilities and resources. And even a near-total battlefield victory would not extinguish the group, which has roots in Palestinian society and positions itself as the standard-bearer of resistance to decades of Israeli occupation and land grabs.
“I would call it a very flexible entity which combines the characteristic ruling party, an underground organization and charitable fund,” Michael Milshtein of Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center, told the Guardian . “It is not something where if you can kill the supreme commander the whole structure is undermined.”
But Israel, in the process, has crushed much more. “Rather than destroy Hamas, this war will destroy Gaza and render it largely uninhabitable, as we can already see in northern Gaza,” noted Dov Waxman , professor of Israel Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. “This will fuel more militancy among Palestinians and more support for armed resistance.”
That sense of a bloody cycle is underscored by the chilling language coming from many prominent voices in the Israeli political establishment, including Netanyahu, who has discussed “thinning” out Gaza’s population. His rhetoric, observed Middle East historian Jean-Pierre Filiu , demonstrates that behind Israel’s “stated desire for retaliation lies the desire to eliminate not just Hamas but the Gaza Strip.”
Some Israeli politicians say this bluntly. “The whole Gaza Strip needs to be empty. Flattened. Just like in Auschwitz. Let it be a museum for all the world to see what Israel can do,” recently declared David Azoulai , mayor of Metula, Israel’s northernmost town. “Let no one reside in the Gaza Strip for all the world to see, because October 7 was in a way a second Holocaust.”
The official museum at the Holocaust’s most infamous concentration camp responded on social media, saying the Israeli mayor’s remarks “may sound as a call for murder of the scale akin to Auschwitz.”
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Humiliated people will hold grudges for decades.
What about the families whose loved ones were murdered, raped and tortured by terrorists?
We inflicted more harm on German civilians by an order of magnitude in WWII. Do you think Germany will let go of their grudges soon? Should we have engaged in constant cease fires to enable Germany to restock, replenish and dig in to avoid that?
You feel killing civilians not involved in those murders and rapes are justified? Do you think those families will feel the killing of non-involved civilians is justified?
We're not talking about Hamas fighters, or even supporters, we're talking about civilians and children who are being killed.
Was World War 2 justified? What about the American civil war? Civilians suffer, often unimaginably, during war.
rters, we're talking about civilians and children who are being killed.
It's terrible that happens in war. It's why it is best to not start them.
15 Gazans have been killed for every Israeli killed on Oct 7th. When is enough enough? If it would definitively end the bloodshed over there it might be worth it, but does anyone really believe that is what will happen?
When Hamas surrenders
Probably when Hamas releases ALL the hostages and gives up.
Yes we are. How many wars have been fought where innocents have not died? Do you think Hamas thought about that before they started the war?
Until Israel decided to take a different approach then the usual you kill a few of ours and we kill a few of yours tactic. Then it is "Oh woe is me, we just want to live in peace. Did I say that to the right angle of the camera or should I say it again?"
I am sure they would be willing to give up Texas if the enemy promised not to go into California.
S/
So that makes it right in your mind? It happened before, so who cares?
Attempting to put words in my mouth?
Civilian deaths is a fact of war. Who started the war again?
There is no way that Hamas is going to win this war against a vastly superior military, but apparently Hamas is dedicated to fight to the last man. After all, what do they have to lose? Will they not then be considered martyrs and earn the privilege to deflower their 72 virgins in Allah's heaven, so why give up? Do they give a shit at all about the Gazan civilians who they use as human shields and hide among them? Do the Gazans regret that Hamas started this whole thing on October 7, when the news got to them and they celebrated in the streets and passed out candy like they did on 9/11/2001? If Hamas were to surrender hostilities would stop, and not one more Gazan would be killed, but is the rest of the world calling for that? No, they are not, they are calling for a cease fire, something Hamas has NEVER honoured, has ALWAYS broken, something that will allow Hamas to rearm, regroup and kill more Israelis - a cease fire that will end within a few days and the blood will start flowing again. This world makes me sick to my stomach and so PLEASE, Scotty, beam me back to the early 1950s, before computers and social news sites and divisive politics.
Should they not be avoided as much as humanly possible?
An iron age, mythological and imaginary, sky fairy that put an over abundance of importance on a certain tract of land?
Israel has the knocking bomb, they are making phone calls to people to tell them to leave the building. What else would you suggest they do when the enemy is under buildings and mingling with citizens? I heard a report yesterday that the head of one of the Hospitals is a Hamas leader.
"Humiliated people will hold grudges for decades."
Yes indeed, the anger of the Palestinians toward their uncaring and war mongering "leaders" will last a long time.
But they're pretty much to blame for supporting these terrorists and allowing to embed with civilians and deserve to be humiliated.
Yet another article blaming Israel for this useless war.
Absolutely correct - the bias sickens me.
I don't blame Israel for the war, but I also don't think that they needed to kill 20,000 people in order to achieve their goals.
Do you think that the reported 20,000 includes Hamas?
When the terrorists hide among the civilians and use them as human shields, does that mean that the invaders have to put every person though a polygraph to see if they're militia or not? The blame for the numbers should be on Hamas, not Israel. Hamas started the war and could not have been ignorant of what the consequences would be. Is Hamas being blamed for those things? No, the bleeding hearts are blaming Israel for the numbers. You must surely know that Israel drops pamphlets, makes phone calls and emails warning civilians to get out of the way. What other army has EVER done that? Are you not aware of what Col. Richard Kemp said about the Israeli Army doing more than any army in history has ever done to preserve the lives of the civilians. Israel cannot stop this war, because to stop now means soon enough more Iranian missiles and Hamas-made rockets and incendiary balloons and kites are just going to start being fired at Israel again as has happened after every cease fire. What is happening now is necessary to stop the terrorism once and for all. The collateral damage is not Israel's fault, it's Hamas' and Islamic Jihad's and Iran's and Hezbollah's and Israel has finally decided to stop it.
Where are the nations' politicians and demonstrations and marches and media demands that Hamas surrender which will stop the bloodshed, when it is inevitable that Hamas is going to lose this war?
I don't believe ANYTHING those terrorists have to say. They KNOW that the higher numbers, especially the numbers of women and children, will get the world's bleeding hearts to try to get Israel to stop.
Their goal is to eliminate Hamas. What else should they be doing to protect citizens that the enemy uses as shields?
For any leftists that need a definition of what a fascism really is.
War sucks. Civilians often suffer the most. That doesn't mean you end the war before the other side surrenders.
There is only one true way to stop someone has pledged to destroy you. That is to destroy them first. Whatever it takes. This reminds me of the Nuc debate on Japan. Dropping those bombs was a horrific option that in the end saved many civilian and military lives. On both sides.
It’s sad to see how many otherwise good Americans, are allowing themselves to be used as useful idiots by Hamas animals. Really sad.
The unbiased liberal press has simply started throwing crap at the wall and hopes something sticks. The liberal narrative has become contradictory, self-defeating, and pointless.
The unbiased liberal press tears hair and rends clothes over 20,000 Palestinians being killed. At the same time claiming that Hamas hasn't been fazed. So, why isn't that a call tor Israel to strike harder? Israel's stated goal is to destroy Hamas. The unbiased liberal press seems to care more about protecting Hamas than protecting civilians.
The Palestinians have completely ignored the United Nations. The Palestinians don't care if the UN wags fingers, wails into its pillows, screams at the sky, or issues condemnations. Civilized condemnation by the UN hasn't changed the behavior of Palestinian terrorists in any way, shape, or form. Why should Israel pay any attention to the United Nations?
Now the unbiased liberal press wants us to believe that Israel is incapable of destroying Hamas. So, Israel should just give up. But that press narrative ignores that Hamas lives under sea level. Israel needs more pumps. Israel may well drown out the liberal machinations of the unbiased press. Will the journalistic favoritism towards Palestinian terrorists float in that reality? Time will tell. But people may not be paying attention any longer.
A poll was conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in the West Bank and the Gaza between 22 November and 2 December 2023. In Gaza it was conducted during the ceasefire. Findings include:
And there you go ….
Some color to your poll.
Israel has had a blockade on Gaza since 2007- it isn't allowing in nearly enough goods to allow for the natural expansion of Gaza to accommodate all of the Palestinians living there. Much the less rebuild after repeated Israeli bombings of Gaza. Yes Hamas shares in the blame; but Israel doesn't give a fuck about the Palestinians and repeatedly destroys home and infrastructure that has nothing to do with Hamas.
If you have to ask why that is you aren't paying attention. Israeli Settler/IDF killings, assaults, and forced expulsions of Palestinians were up in the West Bank before Oct 7th. They have been on the rise for years. Now they are reaching epic proportions after Oct 7th. The IDF and Israeli courts will not hold the settlers accountable.
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Why would Palestinians trust the corrupt PA that is only interested in enriching themselves on the US and Israeli tit? The PA has done nothing to combat settler violence and protect Palestinians; and won't engage the IDF to stop the unwarranted raids and killings on the Palestinian people. Bibi thinks so little of the PA that he won't even put them in charge of Gaza. Guess Abbas needs to force the people under his charge to promote a "Have you hugged a settler that killed your family member and destroyed you home day".
Remind us all what Abbas has done for the Palestinian people again? Come up with one damn thing other than capitulate to Israel; and doing whatever it takes to remain in power. He hasn't held elections in the West Bank since 2006.
Look at any map of the West Bank. Israel now controls the majority of it and is taking more every year. Capitulation has done what for the West Bank Palestinians again? Unfortunately for the Palestinians it is far too late for armed resistance on any front. They have lost too much land in the West Bank to form a viable state- and Israel (Who is in violation of the Oslo Accords as much as Hamas is) isn't going to withdraw their settlements. The only country that can stop Israel is the US. But our politicians (especially Democrats- go figure) are deep in the feeding trough of AIPAC money. The billions a year in military and financial aid aren't going to stop flowing to Israel; and the US will protect Israel in the UN Security Council and General Assembly.
Please repeat the BS that Palestinians have been offered their own state 3 times. All of the offers wouldn't give the Palestinians control of their own security, borders, water rights, and air space. What country can exist w/o having control over those things?
Also, please let us all know if the Israelis care so much about peace how they can keep reelecting/electing fascist fucks like Bibi and his government to power?
There’s nothing preventing Hamas from surrendering.
Nothing but centuries old religious hatred. Funny thing is. Many here who are anti religion in general, are showing support for the religious zealots who are supporting Hamas.
Well …. not really that funny at all. Pretty damn hypocritical actually.
Not being religious and I strongly support Israel.
The Palestinians have shown repeatedly they are not able to govern and have brought whatever happens on themselves. I don't see why some feel sorry for them, I don't!.
Nothing except the ingrained belief that if they are killed in a war against the Jews they will be considered a martyr and will spend the rest of time deflowering and enjoying their 72 virgins in the Garden of Allah. However, they don't take into consideration that if they are killed by a female IDF soldier that won't happen, according to their belief. Gal Gadot, where are you, Wonder Woman? Wipe out that Hamas scourge.
Why would they surrender?
Neither they nor Israel give a fuck about the Palestinian people or any amount of suffering being inflicted.
Anyone thinking Israel is going to pack up shop in Gaza and leave the Palestinians alone if Hamas were to surrender is delusional.
The Gazans are fucked. It is just a matter of how many of them will die at this point.
Hamas surrenders and this is over. It is that simple. Israel doesn’t have a choice, an occupation of Gaza is necessary. Now when they occupy Gaza, they need to make bettering the lives of the people there their top priority, and they need to be ready to do it for decades.