WhatsappIsrael was clearly caught off-guard a few weeks ago, and a few thousand Arabs massacred more than 1,000 Jewish civilians, and more than 400 Israeli soldiers and policemen were killed fighting off the attackers. Weeks afterwards, the scope of the tragedy is still registering. Israel will never be the same. Oct. 7th will always be viewed as the date that will represent the sea change in Israeli society on multiple levels.
Interestingly, despite overwhelming support for an Israeli incursion that will destroy the Hamas once and for all, Israel has largely hesitated from sending in the ground forces just yet. What has been going on is a crushing campaign from the air that is flooring massive parts of Gaza City, the center of the Hamas terror network.
But what is holding up Israel? There are certainly a few factors. The #1 reason is the stark reality of a few hundred kidnapped Israeli hostages. Most of the kidnapped hostages are not only Israeli citizens. They have foreign citizenship or dual citizenship, and many of them are young or old. There are definitely fervent attempts to come up with a deal to exchange them before Israel goes in with a massive ground force. This is completely understandable.
But the other reasons are military reasons. It is very possibly that it is in Israel’s advantage to wait and weaken the terrorists for a few weeks, attack mercilessly from the air, and continue to gather intelligence before going in on foot. This will limit Israeli casualties to an absolute minimum. If that is the case, then it is probably a good move.
The real question though is whether Israel is stalling due to American pressure. If that is the case, then Israel is making a fatal mistake. Of course Israel is in need of more weaponry in the event of the war widening to Lebanon and Iran. But Biden, and nearly all of America, understands that Israel absolutely must restore the fear of Israel’s Army among it’s Arab neighbors. This timeframe will not last for many more months. If Israel only fights to a draw and Hamas still operates a power structure in the Gaza Strip at the end of this War, Israel will strategically lose this war.
