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Why the Israelis cannot win in Gaza or Yemen

  • Robert Inlakesh Robert Inlakesh
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 7 May 2025 23:21
  • 3 Shares
10 Min Read

Although the explosions caused by their US-supplied bombs let off a sense of superiority, they truly indicate that the Israelis are lost and incapable of finding a way to victory.

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  • Why the Israelis cannot win in Gaza or Yemen
    Adopting a similar strategy in Gaza or Yemen, the Israelis are lost and incapable of finding a way to victory (Illustrated by Ali al-Hadi Shmeiss; Al Mayadeen English)

The strategy employed by the Zionist entity in both the Gaza Strip and Yemen is almost identical: striking civilian targets, murdering civilians, and inflicting mass starvation. Although the explosions caused by their US-supplied bombs let off a sense of superiority, they truly indicate that the Israelis are lost and incapable of finding a way to victory.

In 19 months of an all-out war, the Israeli regime has inflicted genocide upon the people of Gaza, destroying the majority of the territory’s civilian infrastructure, and, since March, it has been enacting a starvation policy, designed to bring about famine. Despite very clearly expressing their intent to commit genocide, a sentiment voiced throughout the settler population, from its prime minister to its soldiers, this was never going to be enough for them to declare “victory” over Gaza.

At the beginning of the war, the conditions for what Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu calls “total victory” were set; they were the return of Israeli captives by force and the destruction of Hamas. Not only was the Zionist regime incapable of completing these tasks, but it also didn’t even manage to defeat the smaller Palestinian armed factions that operate throughout the besieged territory.

When the war began, the world was told that Israeli bunker-busting munitions would destroy the tunnel infrastructure underneath Gaza, and reports even revealed leaked information about gassing the tunnels. The former CEO of Blackwater, Eric Prince, even handed the Zionists the tools to flood the tunnels with sea water. Yet, the tunnels remain, and the Israelis don’t even know how many of them truly exist, as fighters are still capable of emerging from them in the north of Beit Hanoun in order to carry out successful ambushes and inflict losses.

We were also told periodically throughout the war that “Tel Aviv” was preparing some master plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza. Then, after various failed invasions of built-up areas throughout the territory, and with each new assault failing to achieve any objective beyond the mass slaughter of civilians, we were told to fear the “General’s Plan”. This plan sought to fully capture northern Gaza and "annex" it. Israeli settler extremists, jumping for joy, even began planning which land they would steal.

Every new “plan” and every new threat produced nothing. Instead, Israeli soldiers lost confidence in their mission and began refusing to show up for duty, and with each new invasion came thousands of casualties, along with losses of tanks and APCs.

Now, we are once again being told to believe that the Israeli military has some kind of game-changing ground strategy to fully occupy Gaza, while others claim that the plan is to ethnically cleanse the territory and topple Hamas. Some Israeli officials even referred to the new “phase 2” plan as a “nuclear option”, meaning that it will be so devastating that perhaps a hundred thousand people will be killed.

Despite the fear-mongering from the Israeli regime and its media apparatus, including its assets in the Arabic language media too, nobody can even elaborate on what the defined goal or methods of the operation on the ground will be. Why? Because the Israeli military has no ground force to conduct such an operation, especially if it seeks to deploy enough soldiers in the north of occupied Palestine and the West Bank, which are necessary to combat any major uptick in battles.

Israeli soldiers have not fought a real war; they have remained in fortified areas and armoured vehicles and tanks and rarely ever even engaged Palestinian Resistance fighters. They depended on their Air Force and superior technology for everything, and as a result, ended up murdering civilians like fish in a barrel, while not a single video displaying Israeli "bravery" has emerged. 

Why didn’t the Israeli army fight? Because they are petrified and incapable. Their army is a glorified police force that hands out ranks like participation trophies. In 2014, after invading Shujaiyah, they learned their lesson about what happens when they try to fight. Since October of 2023, they haven’t been capable of holding the built-up areas in Gaza.

If you look at the Palestinian side of the fighting, they have restricted themselves mainly to carrying out ambush operations, which is the best way to preserve strength and continue fighting in a long war. But one thing you’ll see, which is again absent on the Israeli side, is a steady stream of daring military assaults, whereby they bring the fight to their opponents. 

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers publish videos of themselves wearing women's lingerie, wedding dresses, and underwear that they have stolen, smashing up stores, defecating on the floors of homes, or even blowing up civilian homes for fun, including detonating a building for a gender reveal party. 

Their society has degenerated into one that justifies and often celebrates the dismemberment of Palestinian children. It has become a place where it is public debate as to whether soldiers can gang rape kidnapped Palestinians who are held without charges. Its settlers are racist to their core and become more hateful the longer the war continues without any sign of victory.

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This is not a regime that is in a strong position, this is an entity that is trying to redefine the nature of existence from within, domestically divided, economically shattered, internationally isolated, and under the pressure of countless international legal efforts. But above all, it is incapable of victory. So, instead, it periodically ramps up its mass murder and expands its bombing campaigns, partially as a means of convincing itself that it isn’t in its weakest ever position.

Meanwhile, Palestinian resistance in all of its flavours, from the fighters to the writers, poets, and artists, only digs its heels in further. The Israeli forces did not militarily defeat the armed groups in Gaza and have no clear strategy to do so.

Now, Yemen has announced it is imposing an aerial blockade on the Zionist regime, to which it responded by pounding port infrastructure in Hodeidah, cement plants, and Sanaa International Airport. 

Yet, in Yemen, its strategy is just as it is in Gaza, stopping the flow of aid and food imports, while killing civilians and taking down infrastructure as a means of collective punishment. The Israelis have virtually no military targets to hit there, so they attack civilians. This proves the point that they have no cards, so they do something that any criminal can do: kill innocent unarmed people who are uninvolved. 

In Gaza, this “Phase 2” operation is more than likely going to be more of the same: invasions with no risk-taking, backed by horrifying bombing attacks on civilians from air, land, and sea. If by some chance the Israeli army decides to actually fight this time, then it will suffer enormous losses, which is why any such move is doubtful. Even at the peak of their power, they were incapable.

Some may retort and point to the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and the collapse of the Syrian government, laughing off the notion that the Zionist regime is in a losing position. To this, the answers are very simple.

Firstly, addressing the conflict in Syria. Yes, a weapons supply route has now been compromised, but the former Syrian leadership was never actively involved in this war. Now, since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the Israelis have opened the Syrian front. While there is no active organized opposition and the leadership under Ahmed al-Shara’a is seeking normalization, the Zionists aren’t interested in the requests to normalize; they want more territory and see a historic opportunity.

Weapons are still passing through Syria, but at a different pace than before, evidently, and the absence of Iran has meant that resistance activity has been stifled by the Western-aligned Syrian leadership. Yet, analysts fail to factor in that Syria is not stable and there is yet to be a real state that exists there, so anything can happen, and the likelihood of the situation backfiring on the Zionists is high, given their arrogance. However, this all being said, the fall of the former government has definitely worked in the favour of the Israelis for now, but this isn’t something that they achieved militarily.

On the Lebanon issue, those who argue that Hezbollah has been defeated are simply delusional. Although Netanyahu and his Western backers love to claim this, their military leaderships and intelligence communities are not so stupid. If Hezbollah was finished, then why did the Zionists fail to seize southern Lebanon on the ground and eventually agree to the so-called ceasefire? 

Also, if you look at the sheer volume of drones and anti-tank munitions that were being used, it is clear that the group's arsenal was far from depleted. They fought for over a year in total, firing tens of thousands of munitions at the Israelis. If anything, what the Zionist regime did through its assassinations of Hezbollah’s senior leadership and pager attacks is to blow key cards.

A series of tactical victories were achieved by the Israelis, but it can be argued that they suffered an operational defeat in Lebanon. Of the tactical victories, they were significant for sure, and there is no denying this; this is why, on an emotional level, so many people throughout West Asia feel defeated. The question now is who will achieve the strategic victory.

If they make one mistake, the whole deck of cards could easily come tumbling down on the Zionist entity. This is why they keep bombing and agitating without committing fully to any front. In order to understand their predicament, it is necessary to read between the lines and not fall into their propaganda. 

It is also important to say that on the side of the resistance and its public supporters, they were led to believe that victory would look a lot different. There was almost a sense of complacency in believing that the Israeli entity’s weakness meant that it was going to suddenly crumble, which it won’t. The Zionist regime’s media comprise former soldiers and often ex-intelligence operatives, so when they publish criticisms of their own military and regime, it is done so with a dual purpose of ensuring that it does not damage security. 

It has to be understood that neither side in the multi-front conflict is “winning”; it is a battle to the death against two sides that aren’t going to fall without a knockout blow. 

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • Syria
  • United States
  • Gaza Strip
  • Yemeni Armed Forces
  • Israel
  • Gaza genocide
  • Israeli occupation
  • Yemen
  • Lebanon
  • Gaza
Robert Inlakesh

Robert Inlakesh

Political Analyst, Journalist, and Documentary Filmmaker.

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