Israeli Government Blinded by Smoke from its Pipe Dreams

This week, the Israeli government, through its military defense and intelligence forces, has seriously degraded Hezbollah forces in Lebanon by planting explosives into their pagers and walkie-talkie systems. Though casualty estimates are not conclusive, dozens of people have been killed with literally thousands more suffering serious injuries. Children have been listed among the casualties.

While there are those who are congratulating Israel on its stunning and unprecedented military operations, I take a very different position, for I fear a much larger and even more deadly outcome from what we have witnessed over the past year.

The right-wing Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu has operated on false assumptions in its fight against Hamas over the past year. Though it is difficult for me to be brief, I will attempt to do so by enumerating the following points.

1. Israel must get over its pipe dream of totally decimating Hamas. It has yet to achieve its aim, which is virtually impossible since many Hamas fighters and leaders have moved abroad, and by cloaking themselves with Palestinian civilians, more and more innocents will be added to the approximately 40,000+ fatalities since October 8, 2023.
2. Israel must get over its pipe dream of totally decimating Hezbollah. Hezbollah is even stronger than Hamas in terms of Iranian funding, number of fighters, and its substantially more extensive cache of armaments.
3. If Israel had agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas previously, Hezbollah would most likely have limited or stopped its missile strikes into northern Israel and potential operations to invade Israel.
4. By opening a major front into Lebanon, Israel is risking a much wider Middle East war with increasing carnage on all sides. It might compel Iran again to enter directly and more deeply into the fray.
5. Israel is forgetting the lessons from World War II when the Nazis sealed their own downfall by opening another front of war in the East by invading the Soviet Union.
6. Israel is sealing its downfall by opening its northern front by siphoning its limited resources to another theater of way and by virtually killing the Abraham Accords that could have brought in Arab states to negotiate an equitable peace settlement.
7. Western countries, including the US, must stop sending military aid to Israel, and must put more pressure on the government to negotiate in good faith. By continuing to ship armaments to Israel, these allied nations are enabling and colluding in the injury and murder of many innocent people caught up in these incessant hostilities.

In the final analysis, it seems clear that as the IDF is winding down its bombardments of Gaza, Netanyahu does not want hostilities to end, so he has instigated a new front to keep the war going. The day when hostilities do come to an end, Netanyahu and his government will fall and be replaced, possibly, by a more centrist coalition.

When finally out of power, Netanyahu risks prison time on previous charges of fraud and corruption.