Chief of the General Staff of Israel, LTG Herzi Halev with soldiers i
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, October 30: Two days after a global outcry following the communication shutdown on the back of unimpeded bombardment in Gaza, the US has reportedly pushed Israel to restore the telecommunication network. Even while the Republicans are seeking to be cheerleaders of Israeli revenge bombing in Gaza, security voices have warned of the limits and risks of Israel’s offensives.
Speaking to a US-based television, former adviser to Pentagon Douglas McGregor gave a reality check of the scope of Israel’s war against the Hamas. “Some of the special forces of the US and Israel went into Gaza for reconnaissance and they were shot to pieces,” McGregor told the television channel. While the urban warfare observers have warned that Israel’s ground actions in Gaza may face challenges as seen in Mosul in Iraq in 2016, the Hamas appears to have been maintaining a high level of secrecy of its military assets in Gaza.
Yet, Israel, noted Middle East observers, has no choice but to “eliminate the Hamas” for its own survival, else there remains the prospects of more brutal attacks than that of October 7. “Revenge is understandably on the minds of many Israelis, but that is not what is driving the country’s response. Rather, it is a simple calculation that if Hamas retains military capabilities, it presents an intolerable security threat,” noted James F. Jeffrey, former American diplomat, in a column in Foreign Affairs.
The US presidential campaign now has a running theme about the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel with the Republicans egging on Tel Aviv to go for the kill in Gaza. But the US is short of the personnel to lend helping hands to Israel in the event of the war theatre expanding beyond Gaza. “The US just has 2000 mariners or special forces and we cannot 80,000 to 1,00,000 forces to the region,” added McGregor.
Israel may have to wage own war, suggests diplomatic veterans in the US with exposure to the Middle East, while Washington may have to bend on back to work diplomacy with China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia to keep a check on Iran and Lebanon. “The arguments mobilized against a ground attack include the potential availability of steps short of an invasion to neutralize Hamas, the disastrous regional political fallout of a ground incursion, the possibility of escalation by Iran or its surrogates, massive civilian casualties, and uncertainty about what will happen in Gaza ‘the day after’. But in Israel’s world of war, none of those concerns can outweigh the need to remove the intolerable risk of another, even bigger October 7,” argued Jeffrey.
The Economist, however, in a ground report believes that Israel may smoke out the Hamas to make the task easier to eliminate the future risks on the lines of October 7. “Hamas has stockpiled fuel, food and other essentials in its labyrinth of tunnels. At some point, though, supplies will run out: a lack of fuel for generators would mean no fresh air or lights underground, which would force Hamas to surface,” stated the Economist, while claiming that the US with unconditional support to Israel has already eliminated the possibility of the second front war in northern Israel as “Israeli and Arab officials say Hizbullah has suffered more casualties than expected”.
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