Barak: 'Destroying Hamas' unrealistic, Netanyahu blamed for failure
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Barak believes that once all the reservists have taken a refresher training, control of most of the Gaza Strip and the destruction of Hamas’ centers of power and military capabilities can be achieved "in two to six weeks."
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak during a lecture at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016. (AP)
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak calls Operation Al-Aqsa Flood “the greatest failure in Israeli history," as he warns the occupation's government not to rush and go with a ground invasion.
“We’re not facing an existential threat from Hamas,” he said. “Israel will win this.”
Barak believes that once all the reservists have taken a refresher training, control of most of the Gaza Strip and the destruction of Hamas’ centers of power and military capabilities can be achieved “in two to six weeks.”
He also thinks the ground invasion could be carried out in stages as opposed to the ground invasion of 2009 and 2014 when the IOF entered different areas of the strip, but he still added that a ground encroachment is better delayed if an agreement can be reached.
Read next: Israeli media account of ceasefire rejected by 'Israel', Egypt, Hamas
In his opinion, "Israel's" actions must be viewed as legitimate, but “[Western] support also comes with an expectation we abide by international law in our operations."
“Support will erode when there is footage of ruined homes [in Gaza] with bodies of children and weeping old women.”
He continues that the US naval presence “also emphasizes Israel’s need to operate according to international law."
'Breathing and believing Hamas'
On the matter of Hezbollah, he claims that "Israel" needs to keep its watch as the former has perhaps 150,000 rockets aimed at "Israel".
Barak claimed that the Palestinian Resistance operation was based on similar Hezbollah plans to take back the settlements in the north.
“Israel doesn’t have an interest in conflict with Hezbollah right now and I don’t think they will attack now that we’ve deployed a lot of forces up north,” he stated.
However, he remains critical of the plan for “destroying Hamas” by Benjamin Netanyahu, "Israel’s" Prime Minister.
“What does it even mean?... That no one can still breathe and believe in Hamas’s ideology? That’s not a believable war aim. Israel’s objective now has to be clearer,” he said.
Surprisingly, Barak expressed that the best outcome would be the re-establishment of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza but warned that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “cannot be seen to be returning on Israeli bayonets."
'The worst type of negligence'
An interim period is required, according to Barak, as “Israel will capitulate to international pressure and hand Gaza over to an Arab peacekeeping force, which could include members such as Egypt, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. They would secure the area until the Palestinian Authority could take control.”
Read more: Only Palestinians with foreign passports allowed to leave Gaza: WSJ
Although "the immediate operational problems are being fixed," he believes “a much deeper assessment will have to take place later” after which the fingers can point to Netanyahu.
“It will be clear that, above all, Netanyahu had a flawed strategy of keeping Hamas alive and kicking… so he could use them [Hamas] to weaken the Palestinian Authority so that no one in the world could demand that we hold negotiations [with the Palestinians].”
Netanyahu and Barak go back 55 years when Netanyahu was a commando in the secretive General Staff Reconnaissance Unit under Barak, who commanded the unit.
“Because the deaths were mainly of civilians and the state has forsaken its most basic commitment to its citizens—to keep them alive—this was the worst type of negligence.”
