Whatever happened to the Israeli Psyche?

CrossFireArabia
Analyses
May 24, 2024

The slaughter of Gaza has shown the world that Israel, those circle around Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, no longer function rationally. Their daily acts of ordering mayhem and destruction on a defenseless people in Gaza to get to Hamas, is surely signs of deep psychological disturbances. If not stopped, such atrocious behavior will lead to unforeseen instability in the region and the world. After all, Israel has the nuclear bomb and everybody knows it.

I see the Israeli government and the war cabinet on my television set daily, in fact at least few times a day. I see Netanyahu and his ministers and military officers around the table nonchalantly discussing the war on Gaza.

Unbelievable is the fact, and over the past eight months, they have assembled in unison, as if this is a series of business meetings discussing among themselves which parts of Gaza they should bomb today, what type of American missiles they should use and which homes harm should be inflicted on.

These are supposedly top Israeli leaders reduced to a genocidal state of atrophy and political degeneration. Up till now they have not been able to get to the crux of the Hamas fighters and/or their whereabouts.

So, one can imagine them talking about which communities, blocks of flats, housing areas their so-called top brass and elite soldiers would bomb on that particular day. Is it fathomable? Its like George Orwell’s 1984 but in deadly style; here its Big Brother with flying machine guns, tanks on innocent civilians and so-called soldiers with pointed rifles ready to shoot men, women, children and babies.

Its madness, but statistics show it. The number of children that have been killed through Israeli barrel-bombing stands at 15,000 according to international statistics provided by the United Nations.

And the Israeli cabinet meetings go on today, next day, the next and the next, plotting what madness to carry out and follow. it’s a parody of massacres, while the world cheers on and justice is served. Its an odd form of confused chaos, staring from Israel to the White House and different capitals of the world. Who is playing the tune and who is listening to it?

But it’s willful, wonton, determined destruction and bloody killings, all for the sake of ending shady, terrorism and ghost-like terrorists.

How do these people feel about themselves. Can they be called people, maybe humanoids in suits, shirts, slacks, shoes. How do these so-called politicians look at each other when they order the bombing of a row of houses in downtown Gaza, Khan Younis, Dier Al Balah, Beni Suhaila or Rafah. Where are the Hamas operatives. They are starving children and women, the mighty Israeli war machine is bombing at full speed and with no compunction!

Don’t they watch their Godless bloody-infested handiwork? Surely, Israeli government leaders, if such an expression can be used, must see television images of those sprawled devastating photos and videoclips on the social media.

Human hatred per excellence. Maybe they are so blinded by rage and are prepared to see the worst kind of genocidal atrocities even if they are innocent babies. This war on Gaza has shown the distorted Israeli psyche of the mad people in power which means their indifference to human lives, including Israeli, is just a matter of collateral damage.

Human lives become worthless and with a machine-gun in one’s hand, they become mere figments to be shot at. Israeli soldiers have seen it as their moral duty to kill Palestinians running on the Gaza beaches in search of food dropped from the skies to block their insatiable hunger.

We see horror of death everybody, bodies and torn limbs amidst debris and wreckage. We see women and children pulled from under concrete blocks in cement and blood with gashed heads and torn torsos and legs.

I think to myself, isn’t Netanyahu moved. The passion to bomb and destroy has become irrevocable. There is a twist in the mind of a man who gets up every morning and sees his bloody objectives can only be achieved by bombing more, displacing more, setting Palestinian on a circle of movements to be dictated by his vicious army in an opiate terror-mode.

Then there is his agent Herzi Halevi, the so-called Israeli Chief of Staff who willingly obeys a sinister man in power. What kind of a person is a man who tells his soldiers to bombs houses regardless of who is in them: men, women, children, the old, sick and the infirm?

Israel has lost all sense of direction. The people in power have no interest in political deals. Today, it’s about the perpetuation of war that is becoming permanent because the stomping out of Hamas and the Palestinian resistance lies in the realm of imagination than reality.

Marwan Asmar is an Amman-based writer covering Middle East affairs.

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

Analyses

Avi Ashkenazi: Hamas is Pushing Israeli Army Into a Quagmire

CrossFireArabia
April 25, 2025

An Israeli military analyst said Friday, Hamas is waging a “guerrilla war” against the Israeli army in Gaza, and that decisions made by the current government are pushing it toward a quagmire.

Avi Ashkenazi, a military analyst for the Maariv newspaper, explained Hamas is trying to maintain its military strength, and its fighters know this territory; it is their stronghold.

“They (Hamas fighters) are not waging a defensive battle, but rather an offensive one through guerrilla cells. They monitor the Israeli forces from afar, know where they operate, their routines are, and look for their weak spots” he added.

“The cells prefer to operate in the afternoon, during daylight, when the sun is shining. When they realize the right time, they emerge from several openings of a single tunnel and begin the attack with an anti-tank missile, followed by sniper fire or the dropping of grenades,” Ashkenazi continued.

“The problem does not lie in the tactical management of the campaign by the army, but rather lies solely at the political level.”

“The political class is waging a war for political survival, and its decisions are pushing the army into a quagmire, even though Gaza has not seen a single drop of rain in weeks.”

“Israel must reach an agreement to release the hostages (held by Palestinian factions in Gaza) as soon as possible, even if the price is high, which is the release of (Palestinian) prisoners, and even if it means retreating to the border fence of Gaza, even if it means providing guarantees that the war will not resume,” he added.

“Hamas is Hamas, and sooner or later it will violate one of the terms of the agreement, which will allow Israel to move to complete the war’s objectives and deprive it of the ability to govern and militarize,” he continued.

“The wild and impudent words directed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir during the cabinet meeting illustrate the impasse facing some members of the political leadership,” Ashkenazi pointed out.

“The inability of the political echelons to make decisions makes it difficult for the army to manage the campaign (the war of extermination) well, quickly, and sharply.

When this happens in this type of campaign, where there is a large army (Israel) on the one side and a guerrilla organization (Hamas) on the other, the large army becomes vulnerable,” Ashkanazi stressed.

On Tuesday, the Israeli security cabinet meeting witnessed severe tensions between Smotrich and both Zamir and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar. The Hebrew media reported that the dispute began when Smotrich sharply criticized the army’s refusal to assume responsibility for distributing aid, arguing the army lacked the authority to choose its own missions.

He told Zamir: “Those who cannot carry out their missions should go home.” Zamir responded by rejecting these statements, prompting several ministers to ask Smotrich to lower his tone.

Throughout the ongoing genocide perpetrated by Israel in Gaza since October 7, 2023, Tel Aviv has been attempting to impose total control over the Gaza Strip by dismembering it and displacing its population, in addition to its attempts to eliminate Hamas and recover the prisoners in Gaza.

However, Israel has been unable to fully achieve these goals over the months of war, exposing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to criticism both from the extreme right, which wants to tighten the noose on the Strip, and from leftists, who aspire to recover the prisoners from Gaza, even if the price is a ceasefire.

Tel Aviv estimates that there are 59 Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip, 24 of whom are still alive. Meanwhile, more than 9,500 Palestinians are languishing in its prisons, suffering torture, starvation, and medical neglect, many of whom have died, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights and media reports.

With full American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 168,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing according to Anadolu.

Analyses

Military Analysis: The Gaza Resistance is Back

CrossFireArabia
April 22, 2025

Military, strategic expert Major-General Fayez al-Duwairi said the recent operations carried out by the Palestinian resistance groups in the Gaza Strip, led by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, reveal a remarkable ability to perform on the ground, despite Israeli military superiority.

He added that attempts to weaken the resistance are still far off.

In a full military analysis al-Duwairi explained that what happened in Beit Hanoun and the al-Tuffah neighborhood cannot be limited to a single operation, but reflects several separate ambushes in which advanced tactics were employed, including tunnel detonations and preemptive surveillance of enemy movements.

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing released a video of the “Breaking the Sword” ambush it carried out east of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, which resulted in the death of one soldier and the injury of others whilst also engineering an Israeli force that was lured into a booby-trapped tunnel shaft in the al-Tuffah neighborhood and detonated it, resulting in a number of casualties.

Al-Duwairi pointed out that the attack on the Israeli force east in Tuffah is an independent operation and believes the succession of these operations confirms the resistance’s return to the tactics of the first phase of the war, when it held the initiative.

The military expert believes these attacks reflect the resistance factions’ readiness to employ different methods in confrontation, including booby-trapping, sniping, and direct engagement at close range.

He pointed out that the video footage broadcast by the Qassam Brigades from Beit Hanoun, showing the resistance fighters infiltrating through a tunnel, demonstrates a high degree of professionalism, especially since the fighters emerged from a tunnel previously monitored by the occupation, indicating a failure of Israeli intelligence to assess the extent of the threat.

Five stages

Speaking on Al Jazeera, he explained that this complex ambush was executed in five stages, including surveillance, targeting the first vehicle, and then surprising the support force. He indicated that the resistance various weapons were used, including RPG launchers, machine guns, and mortar shells, indicating tight field coordination.

The retired major-general emphasized what was striking about the operation was that the ambush occurred in a buffer zone from which the occupation forces had not supposedly withdrawn, specifically on al-Awda Street, only about 300 meters from the separation line. This demonstrates the fighters’ great audacity and their ability to penetrate deep into Israeli territory in broad daylight.

He pointed out that field data reported by Israeli media, such as the amputation of two female soldiers’ legs as a result of the attack, confirms that the losses were heavy. The Israeli army was also forced to use 60mm mortar shells to attempt to regain control of the area after losing soldiers and equipment.

Al-Duwairi emphasized that the continuation of these ambushes and their various implementation methods prove that the resistance has not lost the initiative. Rather, it is now capable of moving whenever the opportunity arises, whether by reaching deep within the buffer zone or targeting occupation forces as they approach pre-prepared positions.

He pointed out that the tactic of the tunnel detonated east of the Tuffah neighborhood differed from the Beit Hanoun tunnel, explaining that the former involved a direct lure of an Israeli force into a booby-trapped tunnel, reflecting high-precision surveillance and the ability to remain patient on the ground until the appropriate moment for execution.

Major General Fayez al-Duwairi believes that the resistance’s field performance in recent hours reflects an important fact: The use of tunnels remains a black box for the Israeli army. He added that the ability to exploit this tactical advantage means that twisting the resistance’s arm remains out of reach.

Since the beginning of last March, the first phase of a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel, which went into effect on January 19, with Egyptian and Qatari mediation and American support, has concluded, and the movement has adhered to it.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu evaded the start of the second phase and resumed the genocide in the Gaza Strip on 18 March, in deference to the most extreme faction within his right-wing government.

With full American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since 7 October, 2023, leaving more than 168,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing.