Hamas must be eradicated. If it isn’t, this Gaza ceasefire is a failure
by Richard Kemp, Telegraph:
Nobody should be surprised when Israel resumes its war.
Many supporters of Israel have condemned the Gaza ceasefire deal as disastrous. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s opponents have said it is an example of his weak leadership. Not so fast – we shouldn’t underestimate the man who ordered the beeper decapitation of Hezbollah, the elimination of its chief Hassan Nasrallah and even the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital.
The reality is none of us who are talking about it were in the room when decisions were made and we have no idea what the overall plan is, whatever has been publicly announced, discussed or rumoured. Netanyahu’s objective remains total victory over Hamas and Iran’s terrorist axis that seeks the annihilation of the Jewish state. Gaza is just one part of this conflict, albeit a vitally important one.
Like most wars, this one is not a linear process. A strategy is not necessarily undermined by deviation from what appears to be the obvious route towards achieving the end state. Indeed what we are seeing now may be seen as the application of British military theorist Basil Liddell Hart’s “indirect approach”. Having largely eliminated Hamas’s military capability over the last 15 months we have now reached the stage where the priority is to free the remaining 94 hostages.
That was always a major objective of the Gaza war, but it has so far proven impossible to release more than a handful by direct military force. The presence of the hostages has been a drag-anchor in the campaign and prevented Hamas’s total destruction. The terrorists know this only too well: that was exactly the reason they kidnapped them on 7th October.
Read also: It Wasn’t a Deal – It Was a Crime by Alan Dershowitz, Gatestone Institute