As long as decisions at the political and military levels are made based on emotions, biased interests, ideology, ego, smugness, and arrogance, we will not be able to escape the labyrinth into which they have wrongfully placed us. These two bodies operate this way due to a lack of strategic vision and an intense desire to survive politically at any cost.
"Complete destruction of Hamas" is a delusion without purpose. Even entering Rafah and destroying the four battalions will not bring the hoped-for result, but the opposite is true. This destruction will bring the State of Israel to a lower position internationally than apartheid-era South Africa. Further, Israel's collapse from the global boycott, which is already evident on the ground, will intensify.
The more we continue to wade through the Gaza desert, we will lose more soldiers, we will lose the hostages, we will lose the safety of the country's citizens, we will lose Israel's economy, we will lose our friends in the world, and we will lose ourselves. It is only a matter of time before the war escalates, and not only are we not currently prepared for it, but we are also not even in the process of preparing. We are losing our ability to deal with the primary and existential threats threatening to destroy the State of Israel. We are standing idly by even though the Iranian nuclear program is advancing at a crazy pace. No one is attempting to hinder its progress, and every day, we are threatened by hundreds of thousands of missiles, rockets, and drones in the hands of Iran and its proxies.
These threats are hundreds of thousands of times more serious than the Hamas threat. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's focus is on the cliche statement "the complete destruction of Hamas," and he continues to abandon dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat that is growing dizzyingly before our eyes. As long as Bibi, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi are leading the war, we will find ourselves still unable to destroy Hamas for years to come, and the escalation with Hezbollah will continue to prevent the return of residents to the northern towns.
The same will happen regarding the South. We will continue to hold hundreds of thousands of reservists and hundreds of thousands of displaced people. This will cause the collapse of the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of residents, and with them will come the collapse of the Israeli economy. Additionally, we must consider the collapse of Israel's security in the face of the nuclear threat and conventional weapons.
From time to time, the prime minister appears on television and tells the people that if we do not enter Rafah and destroy Hamas, the threat posed by Hamas to Israel will be unbearable. The man has completely lost his rational thinking, or he underestimates the intelligence of his people. In order to begin the fighting in Rafah, the US determined that a new tent city should be established in a safe place where 1.4 million refugees can be evacuated.
The American government stated that the construction of this tent city would take a few months, and this was a necessary condition for the US to allow the IDF to invade Rafah. If Bibi truly intended to enter Rafah, the construction of the tent city in this area, a project that can be set up during Ramadan, should have been set up weeks ago.
The absence of any sign of starting construction on the tent city indicates Bibi's real reluctance to enter Rafah, realizing that it would strain our friendship with the US, Egypt, and the entire Arab world. Therefore, the intentions in Bibi's statements regarding entering Rafah were aimed at gaining political time and staying in power. He is not interested in reaching a ceasefire and does not want this war to end, even with its continued heavy price on Israeli citizens and the hostages.
While Bibi makes his statements on television, the nuclear threat to Israel is intensifying. These are threats that have the potential to destroy the country completely. Bibi does not mention this a single time and continues to ignore the country's preparation for this existential threat. Furthermore, even if Hamas had not been harmed at all and had remained at the peak of its power as it was before the war, it would not have been an existential threat to the State of Israel.
How, then, can it be explained that Netanyahu is putting everything into facing the threats of Hamas when those threats are nothing compared to the threats posed by Iran? The answer is survival, to gain a few more months in power, even though he and his accomplices are dragging the entire nation to destruction.
The governmental trinity that continues to bring down the state
Bibi, Gallant, and Halevi walk hand in hand. I do not trust their judgment, and their lack of rational thinking is reflected in several incidents. The first of which is the October 7 massacre, and their misjudgment was disgraceful in light of the inside intelligence they had for a year.
The second case of irrational judgment was when the chief of staff and the defense minister recommended to the prime minister to launch a simultaneous attack on the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in the North. If this scenario had happened, it would also have brought Israel into a terrible regional war.
The next case was how IDF troops were deployed in the Gaza Strip. The invasion of Rafah was left for the end instead of being taken care of at the start of the war.
The last case I cite regarding the poor judgment of Bibi, Gallant, and Halevi is how they refer to a war against Hezbollah; one poor decision of theirs can set the whole Middle East on fire. Further, if Hezbollah had attacked us in the North at the same time as Hamas, we would have been in an all-out regional war that would have caused Israel's total destruction. It is simply a miracle that that didn't happen.
I am very afraid that their lack of rational thinking could drag Israel into a regional war. The government must release them from their positions as soon as possible.