The political and security echelons make threats against Hezbollah and Hamas. The distance between threats and our ability to carry them out is embarrassing. Some recommended that the prime minister attack Hamas and Hezbollah simultaneously and reach the Litani River. Had their recommendation been accepted, we would be in a regional war today, with heavy losses and terrible destruction; A war for which we were not prepared. The current situation in Gaza is complex:
1. The goal of eradicating the Hamas regime and its military capabilities is far from being achieved.
2. Even after the takeover of the Khan Yunis area, the destruction of hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, including tens of thousands of terrorists, must be dealt with.
3. The time that the U.S. will allow us to continue on this course of action is unclear. We must take into account that when we act to destroy the tunnels, we will be expected to fight from them, and there will be attempts to tail our forces. Guerrilla warfare could last for many years and cause us heavy losses.
Already, most of our fatalities were not in a hand-to-hand war with Hamas, but from IEDs, booby-traps and the launching of Hamas anti-tank missiles. We enter the traps without mopping them up in advance with artillery shells, tanks and planes. Our main problems vis-à-vis the Americans are not only the pressure they exert on us not to harm non-combatants, but also the outrageous lack of ammunition of tank shells, artillery shells and aircraft ammunition in IDF warehouses. Since for years the senior command lived under the conception that the great wars were over, there was not enough ammunition to be restocked for weeks of fighting, and therefore a total dependence on the United States, which does not provide us with all our demands, has been created. Among the two million refugees in Khan Yunis and its environs are thousands of Hamas fighters without uniforms, posing as innocent civilians. They will act against us at a time that suits them.
Israel cannot afford to maintain large forces in Gaza for years. If we don't destroy the terror tunnels, it's only a matter of time before everything returns to normal. A Civil Administration must be established by international bodies in Gaza to assume responsibility for the refugees, and this responsibility will not fall on the shoulders of the State of Israel. Israel must leave the core of the Gaza Strip and move on to raids and aerial bombardments according to precise intelligence.
The time that the United States will allow us to continue on this course of action is unclear. We must take into account that when we act to destroy the tunnels, we will be expected to fight from them, and there will be attempts to tail our forces. Guerrilla warfare could last for many years and cause us heavy losses
We must think outside the box and also think about the situation around us: Hezbollah has launched a war of attrition; The Houthis in Yemen and the Iranians succeed in stopping global navigation in the Red Sea; The smuggling of large quantities of weapons from Syria to Jordan continues. The region is turbulent and our strategy is not comprehensive. We are being dragged into an ongoing war, the "day after" is nowhere in sight.
If we add the social chaos that existed before the war and is liable to return, a defense pact with the United States is the only way to ensure the existence of the State of Israel for years to come. We do not have sufficient resources to deal with an existential threat, and in any case we have become completely dependent on the Americans.
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