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IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) Erez Winner told the "Defense & Tech" podcast that Israel has defeated Hamas and Hezbollah militarily, while calling the length of the Gaza war a military failure.
Israel is winning on every front, and the proof is where Iran's missiles are landing, IDSF chairman Brig.-Gen. (res.) Erez Winner said in an interview with the Jerusalem Post's "Defense & Tech" podcast. Tehran has struck Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan while avoiding Israel, he told host Anna Ahronheim, not out of goodwill but because it knows what Israel can do to it.
Deterrence, he said, is measured by the way the enemy behaves. But the threat that concerns him most is not Iran, Lebanon, or Gaza. It is what he calls "the battle on our homeland": illegal weapons smuggled into Israel in recent years, crime organizations operating in Arab society, and an armed Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria that could, he warned, turn its weapons on Israeli communities.
Being blunt on Gaza war
Winner, who headed operational planning for the IDF's Southern Command from 2013 until roughly a year ago, was blunt about Gaza. The failure to end the war much earlier was a military failure, he said, naming both the former and current chiefs of staff.
Drawing on research he conducted with Prof. Gabi Siboni into 12 historical cases of regular armies defeating guerrillas embedded in civilian populations, he argued that Israel never met the three conditions for victory, control of resources, of territory, and of the population, and spent 2024 fighting Hamas with one hand while feeding it with the other. Asked in a rapid-fire round to name the mistake Israel keeps repeating in Gaza, he answered: "Not dealing with the population."
On defense technology, Winner criticized what he termed the "unprofessional professionalism" of the IDF, arguing that two-year rotations in senior posts leave the army without deep expertise and allow manufacturers to dictate what it buys.
The future, he said, is not a $150 million fighter jet but mass-produced, expendable drones tied to AI capable of converting thousands of tracked targets into strikes within seconds. Asked to name the single technology Israel must invest in immediately, he gave a one-word answer.