'Show me one thing we have succeeded in': Ben-Barak on war on Gaza

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Israeli media
18 May 2024 18:35
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Several statements made by several top-rank Israeli officials reflect the growing official Israeli consensus that the war on Gaza is being lost.

Israeli occupation soldiers refuel a tracked vehicle at a position near the border with the northern Gaza Strip in southern occupied Palestine on December 19, 2023 (AFP)

As statements and reports stating that the Israeli occupation is unable to win the war on Gaza continue to increase, and with the renewed heavy confrontations with Resistance groups in different regions of the Strip that the entity already claimed it had taken control of multiple times, Knesset member Ram Ben-Barak made darker comments than before to describe the state of "Israel" today.

Talking to the Israeli Army Radio, Ben-Barak, who is the former deputy director of the Mossad and director general of the Ministry of Intelligence Services and the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, concluded that the "war in Gaza is aimless," and the entity is "clearly losing it."

"We are forced to return to fighting in the same areas, losing more soldiers, losing on the international stage, damaging relations with the United States, and causing the economy to collapse. Show me one thing we have succeeded in," he said.

His remarks came after the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, said its fighters killed 15 Israeli soldiers from point blank, east of Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah earlier in the day.

According to al-Qassam Brigades military spokesperson Abu Obeida, in the past 10 days, Palestinian fighters have targeted 100 Israeli military vehicles, including tanks, armored personnel carriers, and bulldozers.

They have also inflicted heavy casualties on Israeli soldiers by blowing up tunnels, launching rockets and mortars, and through sniping and close-quarters combat, according to the spokesperson.

Must resign

Meanwhile, War Cabinet member Benny Gantz is scheduled to make a statement at 8:30 pm tonight amid growing disputes between political parties, mainly regarding the state of the war on Gaza.

Israeli media said that his statement is expected to declare his conditions to remain in the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Commenting on the event, opposition leader and head of the Yesh Atid political party Yair Lapid called on Gantz to announce his resignation from what he described as "the most terrible government" in the history of the occupation entity.

He added that Gantz "must announce that he is no longer able to give a hand to the abandonment of hostages, abandonment of the north, and crushing the economy and the middle class."

"[Gantz] should say that he will no longer help Netanyahu stay in power, and he is leaving the government immediately and calling for elections now."

In recent months, a rift has deepened between Gantz, on one side, and ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, on the other, as they've clashed over war strategy, tactics, and the "day after" vision. Both parties have resorted to leveraging threats of resignation from the government against Netanyahu, fully aware that such a move could precipitate its collapse.

On his part, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman told Channel 12 that “the three losers” should resign — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Security Minister Yoav Gallant, and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.

Lieberman called for their resignation over the failures of the government on October 7 following the Resistance's operation and what he sees as a failure to bring about victory in the war on Gaza.

He added that he would only join the emergency wartime cabinet if Netanyahu resigned.

At the mercy of Sayyed Nasrallah

In the north, Hezbollah has escalated its operations dramatically in the past few weeks and conducted multiple landmark operations, including the introduction of a one-way drone that is capable of launching two S5 missiles before attacking its target, disabling the entity's largest spy balloon in a drone strike almost 35km away from the Lebanese border, and destroying a spy balloon deployed a few months ago in the north to fill the gap caused by the Resistance's destruction of Israeli spy and surveillance hardware across the borders.

Additionally, the Resistance has increased its launches to unprecedented levels since the war began, with sounding alarms becoming almost an hourly occurrence in settlements in northern occupied Palestine.

Commenting on the situation, Lieberman said in a post on X two days ago that "Netanyahu has succeeded in shrinking the [geography] State of Israel to the dimensions of a small room."

"What's happening in the north is simply a huge disgrace. It's impossible to count anymore the number of launches that have occurred in the last day towards the north, which has become deserted and abandoned to the mercy of [Sayyed] Nasrallah."

"Anyone who thought that the old and defeatist policy ended on October 7 was mistaken."