For now, victory is still within reach: 10 truths about the Gaza war, 20 months in Israeli troops are again maneuvering inside Gaza, hoping this will be the knockout blow; but Hamas is still fighting and doesn’t seem desperate for a deal
More than 600 days after the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, Israeli soldiers are once again ramping up an operation that, the country’s leaders say, is the key to finally winning the war.
In the meantime, hostages remain in Gaza, it is still unclear what exactly will lead to Hamas’s defeat, and Israel’s standing in the world continues to slip.
We don’t know what will happen next — whether more hostages will be released, when the war will come to an end, what the promised total victory will constitute, and what Israel’s relationships abroad will look like in the aftermath.
Still, there are core insights into the war and its wider context that can help understand where the campaign stands now, and where it should head in the future.
Israel is facing a barbaric enemy, which had the better part of two decades to prepare for a war in which it put its own people in harm’s way by design. Israel’s war aims are just and reasonable.
But 20 months after October 7, Israel has achieved none of its goals. It has performed countless impressive feats on the battlefield and even on the diplomatic front.
Without the right leader and strategy, however, those successes don’t add up to victory.
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U2 Bono: Israel, be released from Benjamin Netanyahu
Victory is still attainable. The longer Israel continues to avoid being decisive, the more likely it is that victory will slip out of reach. 1. Israel’s war against Hezbollah has been a runaway success… 2. …whereas the Gaza campaign has been a halting muddle 3. Israel needs a ‘day after’ vision 4. Operation Gideon’s Chariots is, so far, no drastic change 5. Israel thinks it has all the time in the world…. 6. …and has made victory harder to achieve through a lack of military and political discipline 7. Hamas is playing to survive 8. This government has been very successful in getting hostages released 9. Israelis must ask clearly: How much to give up for 20 hostages? 10. A new language and moral equation has emerged in the current hostage crisis
