CrossFireArabia
A year after the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip and the war’s spread to Lebanon, Israeli politicians must now be involved in a real soul-searching process and study the course of this war on all fronts so may may see whether Israel succeeds in changing the strategic reality in the region or is begining the process of drowning in the mud on all fronts.
According to the Maariv newspaper, Israel is not built for long wars and/or wars of attrition. The Israeli economy relies on human capital and therefore long wars could lead to the collapse of the economy.
To this day, the newspaper says, “three army divisions are conducting maneuvers in the Strip. But so far no combat goal has been achieved in Gaza.
“The Southern Command has not presented an exit plan, the Israeli army has not yet achieved most of the war’s goals: It has not released the 101 remaining hostages, it has not eliminated Yahya Sinwar, and has not been able to dissolve Hamas. It seems that day-after-day we will drown in the Gaza mud,” it said.
The Israeli army is relying on evacuating border villages. In general, the army has taken control of most of the line north of the border fence, but plans for the future are unclear.
For its part, Hezbollah has announced that it intends to operate in a guerrilla style to: Take advantage of the fact that Israel is not interested in a war of attrition.
In the West Bank, the newspaper says, the army is operating in Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarm. It is trying, in cooperation with the Shin Bet, to maintain a level of attack and operations in a way that does not turn the West Bank into another strong front.
In Iran, the Israeli government has not decided what it wants to do. Israel is obligated to attack forcefully after the Iranian attack two weeks ago, but the Iranian issue is complicated.
This is also due to the international community led by the United States, and countries in the Middle East warning of the repercussions of any Israeli response on the economy and oil and gas prices, the expected damage from Iran to the assets of the United States or moderate countries, and its impact on the elections in the USA.
All of these are part of the considerations that the Israeli government must make in order to evaluate what is happening on all fronts, because the future has become unanswerable.
