Israel is Taking Hamas’ Bait
Understandably enraged, Israel is about to make the biggest military mistake in modern history
I’m the son of Holocaust survivors. My father celebrated Israeli tanks in Tel Aviv, since as a teen he saw German Tigers roll on his street in Budapest.
Now I’m shocked by the insensitivity and polarization from both sides of this conflict. The result: endless cycles of violence, suffering, and death.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Hamas is insane, yet so is Israel.
The Hamas attack last weekend was engineered to inflict maximum damage on Israel, physically and psychologically. Check, check.
The first wave was the attack itself, Hamas knowing full well how Israel would predictably respond: With exponentially larger force and damage.
Their broader plan: Draw Israel into Gaza, where troops will be met by an urban guerilla army waiting for them. Hamas’ goal: escalation.
It worked. Israel just ordered a million people to evacuate from northern Gaza, begging the question of where the hell they’ll go.
The statement to the UN also reveals that they plan on setting up shop within Gaza, presumably until Hamas is taken totally out.
But even if such an impossibility as clearing northern Gaza is possible, Hamas fighters will obviously retreat with the civilians.
On the defensive, within their home turf, having no qualms about using human shields, the math is in Hamas’ overwhelming favor.
Tens of thousands of Israeli troops will soon be sniped, booby-trapped, and bogged down in Gaza, weakening the whole country.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will soon be killed and wounded as collateral damage, enraging Arabs on the other fronts.
The chance of this imminent invasion escalating into a multifront, and potentially multicountry war, is increasing by the hour.
Even an armchair general can imagine Hezbollah waiting for the Israeli army to get quagmired in Gaza, then making their own big move up north.
The West Bank has also been roiling for years. Like dominoes of death, the fighting might cascade across the borders of Israel, closing them in.
Israel, consumed by righteous indignation and blood lust, is about to launch one of the biggest military disasters in modern history.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Here’s what Israel should do instead:
- Fortify Israel’s southern border to secure it properly and absolutely in a manner that ensures no such future attacks can happen
- Conduct continued, pinpoint strikes on high value Hamas military targets throughout Gaza, and anywhere else in the world as needed
- Put pressure on Qatar, Iran, and other countries sympathetic to, providing funds for, and harboring Hamas leadership
- Use other third-parties to help negotiate hostage swaps and ensure no further harm is done on either side
- Understand that caging 2.4 million people within an area 5 x 20 miles is untenable and ultimately leads to the violence seen last week
- Restart discussions, negotiations, and diplomacy between senior Israeli and all other Arab leadership
- Stop insisting that such communication is impossible with adversaries who refuse to recognize your existence and want you destroyed
- Acknowledge that Israel isn’t going anywhere, nor is the Palestinians, so embrace Realpolitik, and learn to live together
Such a plan sounds naive, but the alternative will make Israel weaker, not stronger, and might even threaten its very existence. Israel is playing into the hands of Hamas if they invade Gaza. Sadly, invade they will…
