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THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION AT ALL FOR ISRAEL TO RESUME THE WAR IN GAZA
 
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Yossi Melman
March 19, 2025
Haaretz
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_ Renewing the war will certainly not bring the hostages home. What
will the massive aerial assault, further devastation and the
elimination of a few more low-ranking Hamas leaders achieve? Is it
unconnected to Trump's dreams of a Gaza Riviera? _

An elderly Palestinian man walking past people gaathered near the
rubble of a family house after it was destroyed in an Israeli
airstrike in Gaza City on Wednesday., Photo credit: Omar
Al-Qattaa/Agence France-Presse (AFP) // Haaretz

 

With the decision in the early hours of Tuesday to resume the war in
Gaza, Israel's march of folly continues. This is yet another Israeli
violation of the agreement with Hamas, which began with its refusal to
open negotiations as required on the two stages to immediately follow
from the initial truce, and to establish a permanent cease-fire.

But beyond the legal and formal aspect, and the important principle
that agreements must be honored – even if they are signed with a
notorious terrorist organization – what will the massive aerial
assault
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the elimination of a few more low-ranking Hamas leaders
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As expected, on Wednesday, following the massive airstrikes, Israeli
tanks rolled into Gaza, cutting the Strip in two
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while motorized infantry brigades prepare for further operations.

Renewing the war will certainly not bring the hostages home
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On the contrary, it endangers the 22 who, according to Israeli
intelligence assessments, are still alive, and will further complicate
the return of the 37 bodies held in Gaza.

After about 16 months of fighting, there is a sense of déjà vu and
more of the same: more assassinations, but this time of junior Hamas
and Islamic Jihad commanders, since most of the senior figures have
already been eliminated. The assassination operations, which Israeli
intelligence services and the Israel Defense Forces have become so
enamored of and regard as an end in themselves, are primarily directed
against the civilian leadership – on the assumption that this will
hasten the downfall of Hamas' rule.
 
Smoke rising following Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on
Wednesday.  (Credit: Ariel Schalit/AP  //  Haaretz)
Following Hamas' invasion on October 7, 2023 – accompanied by
massacres, rapes and atrocities – Israel had no choice but to go to
war. The country united as one, seeing it as a battle for survival.
Hundreds of thousands of reservists, many of them members of the
protest movement against the government's regime change efforts, were
mobilized and went to fight.

However, as the war dragged on and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
refused to discuss "the day after" or address what alternative
governance should replace Hamas in Gaza, the war became unnecessary
and resulted in the needless deaths of at least 150 soldiers.

In the current round, it is difficult to find even a shred of
justification for the decision to renew the war. From any perspective,
this is a war of choice. This is not a war for survival. It is a
political war, made possible by the blind support of U.S. President
Donald Trump for Israel and Netanyahu.

 
An Israeli tank maneuvering in southern Israel, on the Gaza Strip
border, on Wednesday.  (Credit: Ariel Schalit/AP  //  Haaretz)
Once again, Netanyahu's demagogic and false justification for
launching the war is that Hamas refused to release the hostages and,
thus, to inflict on it a final blow.

Its hidden objectives, though, are to facilitate the return of Itamar
Ben-Gvir
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his radical Jewish supremacy faction to the governing coalition. Also,
under the cover of war, to continue the accelerated legislative push
aimed at once again weakening Israel's traditional democratic
institutions
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its gatekeepers.

The fighting is also intended to elevate the image of the new IDF
chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir
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as a "war commander," an aggressive general – as demanded by the
minister who appointed him, Israel Katz, and other right-wing
ministers.

This conduct indirectly diminishes the stature of his predecessor, Lt.
Gen. Herzl Halevi, who resigned early this month. However, the reality
was that under Halevi's command, the IDF fought – at least in the
first weeks – a war of vengeance, causing the deaths of thousands of
innocent Gazans and the deliberate destruction of residential
buildings and civilian infrastructure.

 
A protester holding a placard showing National Security Minister
Itamar Ben-Gvir, in Jerusalem on Wednesday.  (Credit: John
Wessels/Agence France-Presse (AFP)  //  Haaretz)
Upon taking office, Zamir stated that to execute the IDF's war plan,
he would need to mobilize five divisions. Most of these will have to
come from reserve forces. It will be interesting to see whether the
response this time will be as high, or whether the recent trend of
"white desertion" – reservists finding excuses not to report
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will continue.

Once again, like immediately after October 7, no one at the political
level is setting a clear strategic goal for the military operation:
What exactly do they seek to achieve beyond the hollow slogan of
toppling Hamas? Netanyahu and his government are refusing to explain
who they envision governing Gaza afterward.

If a large-scale ground invasion evolves, there may still be an even
more covert objective: to trigger a chain reaction. To inflict such
massive destruction on Gaza that it ultimately leads to ethnic
cleansing or voluntary transfer. In that scenario, hundreds of
thousands of its residents will no longer be able to live on the land,
not even in tent camps or makeshift shelters. They will disregard
warnings and rush toward the Egyptian border and into Sinai.

If, heaven forbid, someone in Israel conceived such a monstrous idea,
it could align perfectly with Trump's plan to transfer 2.2 million
Gazans to Egypt and Jordan, to make room for "the Gaza Riviera."
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Israeli security forces trying to disperse a demonstration against
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
 (Credit: Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse (AFP)  //  Haaretz)
Since the first week after October 7, Netanyahu has intended – and
has never concealed it – to wage as long a war as possible; a
perpetual war designed to create an ongoing state of emergency in the
country. He quickly realized that the public had grown weary of the
struggle to bring the hostages home, making it possible to abandon
them without him having to pay a political or personal price.

Netanyahu believed – and so far he has been proven right – that
the longer the war drags on, and now with its renewal, the greater his
chances of remaining in power. This is for the simple reason that most
Israelis accept the notion of "don't rock the boat when we're in the
middle of a storm."

The protest movements, and of course the hostage families, have made
it clear that they will not end their struggle. Already on Tuesday and
Wednesday, tens of thousands of protesters gathered
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the streets of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other parts of the country. If
their protest is supplemented by reservists in sufficient numbers
refusing to fight this unnecessary and foolish war, it can end it
quickly and be cut short.

_[YOSSI MELMAn is an Israeli writer and journalist. He was an
intelligence and strategic affairs correspondent for the Haaretz
newspaper, and in 2013 he joined The Jerusalem Post and its Hebrew
sister paper Maariv in a similar, more analytical role covering also
military issues. In 2019 he returned to Haaretz. He is the co-author
of  co-author of “Spies Against Armageddon
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* Ceasefire
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* Gaza
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* Israel-Gaza War
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* Benjamin Netanyahu
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* Donald Trump
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* Hostages
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* Hamas
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* Genocide
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* Israel
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* Palestine
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* Palestinians
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* IDF
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* Israel air
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* Israel-Palestine
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* Israeli politics
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* Trump Gaza Plan
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* Gaza Riviera
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