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Last I wrote, I spoke of the absolute necessity of taking down Hamas, which acts in the spirit of Amalek. My question above – “How Long Can This Go On??” – refers precisely to this.
When I wrote, I had expressed my faith that we would in the end succeed in defeating Hamas. That faith remains strong.
These days are not static, but quite the contrary: These are powerfully dynamic times. Almost daily there are shifts in the situation. Many of these shifts are positive from Israel’s perspective or suggest the possibility of achieving positive results going forward. Consider:
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It is exceedingly reassuring that we have a new IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Ayal Zamir, who is projecting strength and determination. After being sworn in last Wednesday, he wrote his first order to the IDF troops:
“From the depths, filled with courage—our people rose, our army stood up, you stood up and struck back [after Oct. 7]. From here, our focus is set in one direction—victory and the defeat of the enemy! This is our mission, this is our purpose. Against our enemies who sought to destroy us, who slaughtered and raped, who burned and kidnapped—we will strike a decisive blow! (Emphasis added)
“We will not rest until our brothers return from the tunnels of captivity—this is our moral duty.”
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-844910
Zamir is the first Mizrahi Jew to hold this position – his mother is of Syrian heritage and his father Yemenite. I have seen nothing that explicitly addresses this, but I believe his heritage may influence his positions in ways that will serve Israel well today. Those who have lived among Muslim Arabs, as his grandparents did, better understand their mentality.
Trained in the Tank Corps, Zamir strongly believes in expanding the military and investing more in ground forces. He rejects the “small army doctrine” that relies upon high tech equipment. This, too, I suspect will serve us well moving ahead (more on this following). This is a departure from his predecessors going back for some time; his immediate predecessor, Herzi Halevi, trained first as a paratrooper. Apparently there hasn’t been a tank officer who assumed the role of chief of staff since the 1970s.
On his first day in his new position, he went directly to Gaza and met with the Southern Command there, thereby delivering a message. He has a plan for how to defeat Gaza when we go back in. Not every commander in the IDF has thoroughly embraced the goal of complete defeat of Hamas – there has sometimes been equivocation, with suggestions that it might be best to go with a partial measure. His approach will be far more aggressive than that of the fighting in the first 15 months of the war.
I am hoping, I am praying, that Zamir will turn out to be the man we need at the top of the IDF right now.
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Also working to our benefit right now with regard to our ability to defeat Hamas is the relative quiet in the north. Hezbollah is no longer what it once was. According to Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, Israeli troops will remain at five strategic outposts in Southern Lebanon “indefinitely.”
According to the Ministry of Defense, “This is intended to protect the residents of the north…”
https://www.jns.org/idf-to-remain-at-five-lebanon-outposts-indefinitely-katz-says/
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Three new F-35i “Adir” stealth fighter jets, manufactured by Lockheed, arrived from the US at the Nevatim Air Force Base in the northern Negev last Thursday.
“The expansion of the Adir fleet represents a substantial enhancement to the tactical capabilities of the Israeli Air Force,” the IDF said. Of the 50 jets that had originally been ordered by Israel, 39 have now been delivered. Last year Israel ordered an additional 25.
This version of the “Adir” was specially designed for Israel. It has “an external weapons configuration, significantly increasing its strike capacity.”
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On Saturday, the US launched significant strikes on the Houthis in Yemen because of the group’s attacks on Red Sea shipping. “We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,” President Trump declared.
Since November 2023, this group had initiated more than 100 attacks on shipping, claiming solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. During that time, they “sank two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers in an offensive that disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to reroute to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa.”
This in addition to their repeatedly attacking Israel with drones and ballistic missiles throughout the Gaza war.
“On his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that the Houthis ‘have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones. Biden’s response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going’…
“Trump also warned Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the group. He said if Iran threatened the United States, ‘America will hold you fully accountable, and we won’t be nice about it!’”
This action by Trump does not indicate that the Houthi problem has been solved, but that it is on its way. What is significant is the president’s tough, no-nonsense approach.
Today (Monday), he put out an even more forceful statement than he had on Saturday (emphasis added):
“Iran has played ‘the innocent victim’ of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control. They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment…Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!“
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/405505
Rest assured there will be Houthi attacks on Israeli shipping, as well as missiles and drones launched on Israel from Yemen, before this is resolved. The Houthis have threatened as much. But the situation has shifted significantly.
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After Israel embraced the Trump proposal of moving people out of Gaza to settle in other locations, Defense Minister Katz instructed the IDF to put together a plan for their embarkation. That plan was finalized on March 8, when it was announced that a mechanism had been established that was designed to create conditions for 2,500 Gazans to leave daily. Main departure points would be through Israel at Ashdod Port; by air through Ramon Airport, near Eilat; and through the Rafah crossing.
https://www.jns.org/preparations-completed-for-gazan-migration/
The major stumbling block, of course, is securing locations where these Gazans would be welcomed. This is being worked on, and there are some tentative expressions of interest.
I state here once again that it is absolutely not illegal to move the Gazans out, as long as they go voluntarily. And most, if not all, would be happy to leave Gaza for a better situation. What was illegal was Egypt’s behavior during the war, blocking entrance to the Sinai and thereby depriving Gazans of their legal right to flee a war situation.
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But with all of this, here we are, still caught in a limbo situation, with Hamas in control in Gaza and not yet defeated. Their key bargaining chip, of course, is the hostages they still hold.
The 42-day ceasefire Israel had committed to is over. We were supposed to move to the second stage of the ceasefire, which would have meant a permanent end to the war or return to hostilities because of dissatisfaction with Hamas negotiations. For 18 days, we have done neither. Attempts to extend the first stage were not successful.
Hamas is benefiting from a ceasefire that allows them to continue to recruit and strengthen, while it has released no further hostages. Apparently they are still holding 59 hostages; we had been told 24 were thought to be alive and now I am reading that it may be 22.
Before we go back into Gaza, the hope was to secure as many of these as possible. It was never realistic to think we might get all at this juncture. But as many as possible. There is a solid argument to be made, however, for negotiating under fire and securing the hostages as Hamas feels pressed.
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The US has taken a major role in the negotiations – leading with an attempt to bring out five American-Israeli hostages, only one of whom, Edan Alexander, a soldier, is thought to be alive.
I will not attempt to track the ongoing attempts at negotiations; it would be futile. Had I been writing this just days ago, I would have been ranting about Trump envoy for securing hostages, Adam Boehler, whose method of operating was breathtakingly naïve, if not downright stupid. Thankfully he was dismissed from that role by the president.
Now it is Steve Witkoff, US envoy for the middle east, assuming a major role. He advanced a proposal for the immediate release of 11 living captives and half of the bodies still being held by Hamas in Gaza, in return for the release of numbers of terrorists from our prisons and a ceasefire of some weeks length through most of April.
Netanyahu accepted this as a basis for negotiations and instructed our negotiating team to prepare for renewed talks.
But Hamas rejected the proposal, suggesting instead that they release just Edan and the dead American-Israelis. This is not acceptable. Netanyahu calls it psychological warfare.
Witkoff then offered a bridge proposal. This would have involved release of five live hostages and in return “a substantial amount (sic) of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails” – the mere thought of which makes me cringe. Hamas rejected this.
With regard to Witkoff’s description of an offer to release a substantial number of Palestinian prisoners, he made one comment that I want to note here:
The release of these prisoners, he said, “would be a wonderful thing for these Palestinian families.” My response was huh? And I checked it three times via different sources. Apparently he did say this. To even mention what it would mean to Palestinian families indicates a lack of sensitivity to pained Israeli families, whose loved ones have died at the hands of these terrorists.
But there is more. As I thought about this, it seemed that he saw this as a bargaining chip in dealing with Hamas. What else could it mean? If I am correct, then we see that Steve Witkoff does not get it. He is lacking an understanding of Hamas mentality. Hamas cares less than nothing about making the families of the terrorists happy. They only want terrorists released for the sake of terrorism.
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But all of this said, Witkoff is certainly tired of the game-playing of Hamas. He also said this about Hamas’s rejection of his proposal:
“After waiting for about two or three days for an answer from Hamas, which is their usual mode, we got a non-acceptable response. I’m not going to go into the specific details of what made it unacceptable, but it was totally unacceptable…
“I think there’s an opportunity for them, but the opportunity is closing fast.” Referring to the massive US strikes on the Houthis, he said they demonstrate “where we stand with regard to terrorism and our tolerance level for terrorist actions.
“I would encourage Hamas to get much more sensible than how they have been.”
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My friends, Hamas is not going to get more sensible. Had they wanted a deal there would have been a deal by now.
I do not believe that Witkoff’s reference to what the US did in attacking the Houthis meant that the US was about to attack Hamas. (Although I read one analyst who suggested this.) It meant that the US was tired of the Hamas games and it was time for the IDF to go into Gaza.
As I understand it, Israel and the US had decided in advance how much time would be given to Hamas before the war was resumed. Thus, “the opportunity is closing fast.”
We will go in shortly. At the beginning of March a bill passed allowing the callup of 400,000 reservists; other preparations are being made. When we are ready, we will move. I have a strong level of confidence that this is what will transpire.
We should not delude ourselves. This means we will face some very difficult times. But we will prevail.
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I ask for prayers for Israel’s wellbeing – for the wisdom and strength of our leaders and the safety of all Am Yisrael.
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©Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
