Evaluating the Gaza-Israel two-year war

By M.H.M. Faizer

The Gaza war started on October 7, 2023, following the Hamas attack on a southern Israeli border town. Some 1200 people died, while Hamas took 250 Israelis as hostages.

The Palestinian conflict has a long history. With Israel declaring independence in 1948, war broke out between Arab states and Israel. The run-up to the war and the war itself saw the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people and the destruction of more than 500 Palestinian villages. The Palestinians call it Naqba, meaning 'catastrophe'. Naqba Day is commemorated on the 15th of May every year.

Almost 80 per cent of Palestinian historic territory was captured, and they are part of what is now Israel. The remaining land was divided into today's occupied Palestinian territory that includes the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Since then there had been mini battles between them. Perhaps this current battle between Hamas and Israel is the longest, lasting for a solid two years.

Who can be considered victorious in this two-year battle? To make a judgment, we need to employ various yardsticks.

The first is to understand the mission and goals of both parties. It may be relevant to note here that in this battle, Israel was taking an offensive stand and Hamas a defensive stand. The main goal of Israel was to achieve “Total Victory" in terms of two basic wants: to eliminate or to make Hamas surrender and secondly to bring back home all the hostages held captive by Hamas since October 2023.

The actual measure of success depends on the achievement of both these goals. Neither of the goals was achieved by Israel. They could not compel Hamas to surrender, nor did they bring back all the hostages.

Israel presumes that they are a mighty power with all the sophisticated weapons, including those of mass destruction and precision targeting, and that Hamas did not possess any tangible sophisticated defensive equipment (as compared to Israel’s Iron Dome, etc.). So quite naturally Israel was able to demolish a vast number of assets and properties that belonged to Palestine. They in fact literally flattened the entire Gaza. Gazans lost their homes, hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, madrasas and other infrastructure. They even destroyed the animal husbandry, olive trees, etc., while disrupting electricity, water supply and medical facilities. With all these destructive strategies, they thought Hamas would surrender or run away from the battle.

Hamas was determined, and the civilians were steadfast. This attitude of patience was not seen among the Israeli citizens. For instance, when Benjamin Netanyahu was failing in his efforts to bring the hostages back home, the population made desperate attempts to meet him, other political leaders and the IDF to pressurise them. Later the pressure from the civilians escalated into public protests and further escalated into large-scale protests throughout the country, and some became violent protests. The culmination of this frustration and anger was demonstrated clearly when at a gathering the public cheered for President Trump (humming “thank you Trump; thank you Trump”) while Bibi was booed. This happened when Steve Witkoff, the US Middle East Envoy of Trump was delivering his speech once the ceasefire was announced.

On the contrary, the civilian population of Gaza demonstrated no such resentment against Hamas. A critic may argue that the civilians did so for fear of Hamas. The truth is that they chose to remain silent and exhibited extraordinary patience despite their heavy personal losses. This is because they shared the same philosophy and belief that Palestine is their homeland, and they must resist in defending their true birthplace for centuries. In fact, the Palestinians were living there for many thousand years, while Israel came into occupation only about 75 years back.

Thus, one may confidently claim that Israel failed in achieving its stated goals and objectives of winning the battle. Some may argue that Israel successfully destroyed almost everything in Gaza, and it will take long, long years for them to rebuild the entire city. That does not reflect the success of Israel. In a one-day cricket competition between two countries, one country may score 200 runs in 50 overs and lose only one wicket. The other country chasing this score may lose nine of its wickets but manage to score 201 runs and will be declared the winner. The same essence of victory applies in a war between two countries. Losing nine wickets is not the criterion, but scoring that one additional run gives the desired victory.

Israel also has a strong defence system that protects it from aerial attacks from its enemies.

The offensive power of Israel is more lethal in terms of its precision and the gravity of destruction. In addition to its strong defensive system, its offensive system includes precision-guided bombs and bunker-busters (2000 pounds each), to name a few. The latter targeted the underground infrastructure of Hamas. But they did not succeed in dismantling the tunnel structure of Hamas. US intelligence advised President Trump that the tunnel network cannot be eliminated and remains a mystery even for the USA. The USA also supported Israel by providing fighter jets like the F-35 for air strikes on Gaza.

With all this sophisticated technology in use, Israel failed to locate the whereabouts of its hostages.

With the best combination of both defensive and offensive systems, Israel still couldn’t achieve its total success against Hamas.

Procrastination is a sin on Benjamin Netanyahu. His stubbornness and arrogance, coupled with his wild dream, made him continue the battle irrespective of objections and reservations from his own IDF as well as the vast majority of his Israeli population.

In the case of Hamas, every fighter fights with a cause—a cause to protect their ‘holy’ land. Al Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest place of worship for Muslims after the holy mosques in Mecca and Medina. So, the motivation to fight is indigenously built in each and every Hamas soldier. Further, the passive support given by the civilian population is quite firm. Both the Hamas and the civilians are totally convinced that they become martyrs when they fight and die for a worthy cause. They firmly believe that the best of the heavens are granted to the martyr!! This motivation provides them with resistance and resilience to fight against the enemy. This is the single most important influencer that makes them continuously strong and stronger. This is unmatchable. Otherwise, how can the mighty Israeli army, with the best of support and assistance from the greatest superpower in the world, find it so hard to eliminate Hamas? And also, how is it that the Israeli army cannot locate the whereabouts of their hostages in such a small geographical area?

Conclusion

The battle that ended this week was an ugly war. In fact, it was a barbaric war. It was certainly not a war between civilisation vs barbarism, as Netanyahu once claimed. There was more barbarism on the part of Israel than on the part of Hamas. Not providing basic food and water for a civilian population of almost 2 million or more and preventing the volunteer aid trucks from entering Gaza is an incorrigible act. Using starvation as a war strategy is an unthinkable act of good governance.

Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing Democrats party, had the guts to say that Israel is on the path to becoming a pariah state.

Israel, through this war, has made Palestine well known all over the world. A vast majority of the world population have fallen in love with Gaza. The flag of Palestine has gained respect and prestige, especially in the European countries. Thanks to Israel!

While the brand value of Palestine has phenomenally increased, the brand value of Israel has fallen dramatically. In fact, this enhanced brand value has become a sustainable competitive advantage for Palestine. Israel made Palestine become a great name. Once Gaza is rebuilt, it will certainly become a most sought-after destination for the population of the entire world. Israel must have the decency not to be prejudiced over the projected super economic growth of the State of Palestine.

A nation’s flag is sacred for its own country and must be respected by all countries. The flag of Palestine has now become the second love for many countries. This must be the only flag in the world that has been held and carried by people from almost all the countries in the world! Thanks to Israel!

On the contrary, Israel must ponder upon what happened to it and must carve out positive strategies to regain its lost status, recognition and respect, particularly among the western countries. This is a good lesson for Israel to learn from its obstinacy, arrogance and overconfidence.

Israel must now focus on resurrecting its economy, which has paid a heavy price in terms of its decline. It must re-establish its physical infrastructure that was damaged and some totally destroyed. In the case of the reconstruction of Gaza, there will be enough and more countries and individual donors who will come forward, but the same cannot be said for Israel, especially after what Israel did in the last six months of this two-year-old war.

(The writer is the former Deputy Director General of the Board of Investment in Sri Lanka.)