By Dr Marwan Asmar
The Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi says he expects the war on Gaza to last for seven more months.
“We are expecting another seven months of fighting in the Gaza Strip,” he says.
One blogger called this on the X platform as Israel’s “unchecked insanity…” adding “this will only further isolate Israel and cost Biden” the coming US presidential elections in November. But besides, he points out, Biden has “already lost.”
[https://twitter.com/gregjstoker/status/1795859561183662284]
This piece of news has set many on social media talking despite the fact that Israeli army military officers have already said this war on Gaza could go on till 2026 or even 2027 because of the tough fighting of Hamas and the other Palestinian groups that include Islamic Jihad.
[https://twitter.com/SprinterFamily/status/1795851491502161936]
Kenneth Roth, a past Human Rights Watch Executive Director and is now a visiting professor at Prinston University says the reason for Hanegbi’s comment is he wants Donald Trump to get back into the White House and for Netanyahu to be kept out of prison because of the corruption charges he faces.
But that might be jumping the gun especially on the Trump front who may not be interested in forking out billions of dollars to keep this genocidal war on Gaza going as the Israelis would claim and which is what the Biden administration is doing through its air and sea bridge of mass bombs and military hardware to Israel.
[https://twitter.com/KenRoth/status/1795887423295000926]
Hanegbi, described as a “Netanyahu yes man” and like his prime minister may be in a state of illusion, saying Israel wants “another seven months of fighting so as to deepen our achievement and achieve what we define” as the destruction of Hamas.
His illusion stems from the fact that Hamas and the Palestinian resistance in Gaza remain strong and the fact they are putting up a hard fight with Israeli soldiers getting killed by the day.
This is not to say anything about the fact that Hamas missiles and batteries are targeting Israeli tanks and troop carriers by the day with estimations so far, that the Islamist movement has destroyed and/or partially destroyed up to 1500 tanks and other vehicles on the streets of Gaza.
These numbers keep going up daily despite the Israeli sensors controlling what goes out to the media.
[https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1795794188526608488]
Gadi Eisenkot also of the Israeli war cabinet says the idea that Hamas could be beaten, a view put forward by Netanyahu is sowing false illusions. Rather than attempting to end the existence of Hamas, Eisenkot says Netanyahu should be finding ways of bringing the hostages back home which are down to 125 killed through Israeli bombings on different residential areas in the Gaza Strip.
Hanegbi’s comment however continues to trend on the social media platforms. One says the Israeli war on Gaza like the war in Ukraine are part of prolonged conflicts that are likely to last for years and will generate new conflicts.
Dr Marwan Asmar is an Amman-based writer covering Middle East Affairs.
30 May 2024
Source: countercurrents.org