The core problem with Israel’s prosecution of this war is that its stated goal is impossible to achieve: Destroy Hamas. That is a slogan, not a strategy — reductive and simplistic, not unlike “Free Palestine.”
No reasonable expert on the region believes that any number of bombs, or years spent in control of the territory, could actually eliminate every Hamas commander, fighter, weapon and underground hideaway from Gaza, never mind prevent the next generation of terrorists from replacing them. “Destroy Hamas” really means “Degrade Hamas,” and Israel has done this, decisively.
The Israel Defense Forces said in mid-February that it had killed 12,000 Hamas militants in Gaza, including top commanders Marwan Issa, the No. 3 terrorist leader in the enclave; the head of Hamas’s aerial division; two battalion commanders; a brigade commander; and a deputy brigade commander. The military also has dismantled 20 of 24 Hamas battalions, officials said last week, and rendered inoperable up to 40% of the group's estimated 300-mile tunnel network.
These are major, historic achievements that have eroded if not erased the threats to Israel from Gaza for the foreseeable future. As an email I got yesterday from the Jewish Federations of North America put it: “The number of Hamas rocket attacks on Israel remains negligible on most days, due to Hamas’ significantly diminished capabilities.”
The IDF could have declared victory on the battlefield weeks or even months ago in order to focus on the war’s other goal, freeing the remaining 134 hostages — several dozen of whom are believed dead — a goal truly essential to the soul of Israel and the Jewish people. Instead, it has promised to press its deadly campaign on through Rafah, the southern Gaza city where some 1 million Palestinian evacuees have been sheltering in tents — an operation that might further degrade but also cannot “destroy” Hamas, and would have disastrous collateral consequences.
It has become achingly, tragically clear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want to declare victory and exit Gaza, because he knows it will lead to his own exit from power.
In any war — indeed in any complex problem — responsible leaders must constantly reevaluate the potential benefits versus the costs. After the horrific killing, kidnapping, rape and beheadings of Oct. 7, the world understood Israel’s need and right to defend itself, devastate Hamas, restore its security and free its captives. Its friends and allies offered wide berth for Israel to accomplish these goals, despite their high cost to Palestinian civilians.
But Israel has failed to make a compelling case for what marginal benefits continuing the fight could possibly bring toward the illusory goal of “destroying” Hamas, beyond the above-stated accomplishments on the actual, realistic goal of degrading it.
And it is beyond clear that the costs have become too high — not just for Palestinians, but also for Israelis, who do not deserve either the draconian anti-democratic crackdown their government is pursuing, or the pariah status the world is pushing on them.
I cannot say it any better or clearer than the great chef and humanitarian José Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen, did in his New York Times essay this week: “Israel is better than the way this war is being waged.”
To its credit, the IDF quickly investigated and took responsibility for the outrageous strike that killed Andrés’ colleagues in Gaza Monday. The strike was “a grave mistake,” it said this morning, “stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures.” Two top IDF officers were fired over it.
I do not believe Israel purposely or wantonly killed these aid workers, or any of the thousands of other innocents slaughtered in the last six months. I do feel that the scale, nature and length of this war has made such “grave mistakes” inevitable, and it has to stop.
How many other “serious failures” and “errors in decision-making” have occurred where the victims were not foreigners working for a high-profile aid organization — and thus their deaths were not investigated? How many other attacks have been “contrary to Standard Operating Procedures”? We’ll likely never know. | 