Israel and its Waterloo

By M.H.M. Faizer

Israel will meet its Waterloo in the ongoing battle with the Hamas. It will suffer a defeat or face a stalemate that will finally make Israel give up! Overconfidence can become suicidal when a state makes a total underestimation of its enemy. We should not forget that for Hamas, death in a holy war is not an end; it is a straight entry into the best of the heavens. This contrasts with the motivation of the IDF soldiers. They are committed out of compulsion! Hamas has a singular goal, while the IDF soldiers (most of them are young, jolly boys otherwise) have multiple desires!! They are too young to die. Hamas fights with a cause, while the opponents fight with a vengeance!

In war, overconfidence coupled with an inborn arrogance results in maniac war strategies that have no regard for the colossal loss of human lives. Such an ego-maniacal attitude (someone who considers himself to be very important and able to do anything that he wants) will lead to megalomaniacal decisions. These self-destructive decisions are further enhanced when Israel's so-called godfather supports them. To win a prolonged and protracted war, a state must own and possess "organic" technology; otherwise, it takes the risk of being ditched by the godfather one day, or rather!

Israel has many strategies to kill the enemy. In addition to aerial bombings and tanks that have already killed more than 30,000 civilians, Israel believes in barbaric acts such as depriving innocent civilians of access to water, food, medicine, electricity, etc. This “food and medicine” strategy will kill innocent civilians but will not eliminate the resistance. The oppressors have the audacity to say they don’t aim to kill civilians! Who else is killing civilians? The recent attack on aid seekers saw hundreds killed.

In Gaza, people are traumatized beyond belief. The aid policy of Israel is a cocktail mixed with vengeance, ignorance, and incompetence! It’s a war policy focused on an imaginary payout line of "total victory.” They seem to believe that if women are blown to pieces, if parents are unable to recognise their children after being hit with the bombshell, if toddlers are amputated, and if a child is killed every 15 minutes, then they will achieve what they want in their negotiations with the Hamas!! As of today, the opposite is happening: the Hamas do not give in to demands placed by Israel for a temporary ceasefire! They are willing to fight during Ramadan.

It is shocking to note the learned Rabbi Eliyahu Male uttering the following in a public conference: Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, head of the Hesder Shirat Moshe Yeshiva in Jaffa, said at a yeshiva conference that the entire Gazan population should be killed, claiming that "there are no innocents; even an old man is capable of picking up a rifle and shooting." (Haaretz, March 9, 2024.).

Israel may win the war now, but it will lose the battle!

Moreover, focusing on destroying religious sites, graves, and hospitals for flimsy reasons confirms the desperation it is in.

The nightmare for civilians in a war of this nature is not the war itself, but hearing the sound of airplanes and missiles in the middle of the night! The sound of the falling buildings and the fire and smoke thus emanating will make the women and children shiver to death! They feel that they are waiting for their turn to be killed!

What once was thought to be a “cakewalk” by the oppressor has now become a formidable encounter to reckon with. As of today, the oppressor stands strong but eventually will meet its Waterloo.

Defeating the mighty Napoleon was not an easy task! The French Army was led by Napoleon, and the Allied army against Napoleon was led by several states, including Britain and Germany. In other words, a regional war was the cause of Napoleon’s defeat!

A similar pattern will emerge sooner or later in the Israel vs. Hamas war.  The US and the UK want Hamas to be defeated at any cost, and their active support of Israel is followed by passive support from some European and a few Asian countries. But of late, many European and South American countries have been openly critical of the irresponsible and callous actions of Israel against innocent civilians. Even the US is a little tired of the Israeli Prime Minister's arrogance that claims to achieve a “total victory’ at any cost.

Regional conflict will become a reality very soon. The whole world will be punished if this happens since this escalation of destructive war will have a direct and indirect negative impact, and the entire world will pay a price for not containing this war at an ‘endemic‘ level. This is exactly what happened in 2019, when the coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, China! The whole world thought that it was an epidemic confined to China, and some countries said, “Damn good for China,” but the whole world was alarmed when the epidemic turned into a pandemic, killing people in almost all countries. This is bound to happen in this current war between Israel and Hamas.

It is appalling to note the number of countries shedding crocodile tears. They gently condemn Israel's action, and that’s it! Some countries, mainly the Arab countries, are good at reactive strategies and fail to understand that the need of the hour is proactive action. Delivering food and other essentials is a good move, but these Arab states are more capable of obviating such crises by adopting effective proactive actions to stop the war. However, the Arab countries are historically known for being observers with a few light-hearted efforts to do “something” amid destructive warfare.

Finally, Israel, or rather its authoritarian, single-handed leadership, may go down in history as a country that committed genocide, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing.

The Israeli leadership is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel.”

When will this war end?

Spy agencies say Hamas and its tunnel network will not be destroyed.

In its annual threat report, the United States' intelligence community has concluded that Hamas cannot be destroyed.

In conclusion, let me quote the following:

“It takes a monster to kill children. But to watch the monster kill children again and again and do nothing isn’t just insanity—it's inhumanity." - Amanda Gorman, a young American poet, activist, and Harvard Alumni.