[News] The real capitulation

[Anti-Imperialist News]

english.almayadeen.net
<https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/the-real-capitulation>
The real capitulation
Hannan Hussain
January 2, 2024
------------------------------

The message couldn’t be clearer – either IOF bites the bullet on its
occupation, or braces the consequences of unmitigated bloodshed.
[image: 560afce1-4f67-4068-aac3-d8699f335503.jpg]

   - "Israel’s" propaganda machinery can’t do much to spin documented
   failures and tactical weaknesses into a success story favoring the
   occupation. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

It is public knowledge that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have taken
a firm beating
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/golani-s-13th-battalion-withdraws-from-gaza-after-al-shujaiy>during
their war on Gaza, and the extent of humiliation merits renewed
consideration. The view from the ground is that strategic weaknesses have
dominated IOF ranks, letting off a wave of dwindling morale and widespread
trauma across occupation fighters. "Israel's" rising death and injury tolls
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/iof-acknowledges-498-soldiers-killed--2066-injured-since-oct>
have contributed to intense critical scrutiny at home, pushing warmongering
Benjamin Netanyahu and his security cabinet on even thinner ice. Nearly 500
occupation army soldiers have been killed and thousands other injured since
the onset of "Israel’s" ethnic cleansing scheme
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/resistance-forces-iof-to-partially-retreat-in-northern-gaza>
against Gaza. These figures bury the myth of Israeli tactical competence,
and its so-called gains across occupied territories.

First, the numbers make a mockery of "Israel’s" combat preparedness and
serve as an extension of mass policy and military failures that have
accompanied the occupation since day one. Fierce encounters with Resistance
fighters have ensured that the occupation army partially retreats from
cities in northern Gaza. The Resistance has succeeded in obstructing
Israeli invasions into the center, and delivered a level of tactical might
that has pushed the IOF casualty toll upwards.

As recently as November, fierce resistance across Gaza’s southern and
northern axes have sent invading forces scrambling. The resulting chaos
should’ve been a wake-up call for the IOF that there is no symmetry between
an embattled occupation army and a formidable resistance on the
battlefield. Meanwhile, "Israel" has moved the goalposts on its genocide
and sold fictitious victory narratives. On the one hand, occupation sources
claim that true triumph would emerge after months of more humiliation
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-officials-say-aggression-to-last-2-month-or-more--un>.
While some contended that the genocide needs to stick for a year. Whichever
way one cuts it, "Israel’s" pattern of denial is unmistakable: it keeps
stretching timelines to cover up massive defeats on-ground. This is a classic
exercise in futility
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel--unable-to-eliminate-hamas--will-have-to-withdraw--r>
.

Interestingly, "Israel’s" propaganda machinery can’t do much to spin
documented failures and tactical weaknesses into a success story favoring
the occupation. The damning figures on death and injury tolls were
published by none other than the occupation’s own military command. It is
an entity known to omit losses from the final toll and manipulate
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/resistance-forces-iof-to-partially-retreat-in-northern-gaza>
the aggregate count in the process. Look no further than the investigative
stories published by several Israeli media outlets. A series of them have
indicated a much higher injury toll than what the figures establish
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/resistance-forces-iof-to-partially-retreat-in-northern-gaza>
.

As a result, the contradictory accounts reveal a sense of growing panic,
frustration and divergence on the extent of damage actually incurred on the
ground since October 7. Not long ago, "Israel" touted its reservists as
leverage to further entrench the illegal occupation and see the genocide
through. However, the same occupation army feels increasingly overwhelmed
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/confrontations-in-several-parts-of-west-bank-as-iof-incursio>
by the power, discipline, and sophistication of Palestine’s organized
Resistance.

>From a political viewpoint, "Israel’s" humiliating military losses are
turning up the heat within occupation ranks, reflected in Israeli
Comptroller Matanyahu Englman’s recent admission that the Zionist state
gave way to “multi-system failures” from day one. Englman also exposed the
sheer extent of these failures across “policy, military, and civilian”
domains
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-comptroller-vows-mass-probe-into-failures-on-october>.
All this prepares the ground for tighter scrutiny over Netanyahu, who has
been losing popular support and incurred the wrath of occupation soldiers
and hostages in recent times.

The specter of a “mass probe” into the occupation’s strategic and tactical
incompetence is likely to take that pressure up a notch
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-comptroller-vows-mass-probe-into-failures-on-october>.
Pressure from the comptroller’s office is reportedly set to span occupation
policymakers, military officials, and above all, Netanyahu’s own security
cabinet.

Any attempts to expand "Israel’s" ongoing genocide will also prove
self-destructive. Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz recently spoke
about the prospect, while threatening the Lebanese Resistance with
destructive consequences at the border. But massive insecurities and
strategic limitations are at the center of this hollow rhetoric and
bluster. Consider key factors.

First, any expansion would mean that the Israeli occupation army is
determined to ignore its humiliating death and injury toll beyond a
breaking point. This assumes that the occupation machinery can welcome more
losses from an empowered resistance, setting the stage for a firm
reckoning. Second, so-called expansion will further expose the occupation
army’s deep-seated operational issues and tactical deficiencies on the
battlefield. These include the IOF’s glaring failures to tell combatants
and non-combatants apart.

Thirdly, any expansion comes with the presumption that "Israel" can afford
casualties and injuries in a fast-changing, multifront war. This is a tough
sell, considering that occupation belligerence only ends one way:
heightened resistance to the Zionist regime’s illegal occupation and its
attempted colonial reach outwards.

Present reality paints a totally different picture: groups across Syria,
Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon have sensed the temperature of a regional war,
warned "Israel" against further escalation, and maintained a zero-tolerance
attitude towards breach of sovereignty. "This brutal Israeli aggression
against the sovereignty of the Syrian territories is part of the occupation
authorities’ attempt to expand and escalate their aggression in the region
and to cover up war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and brutal
massacres committed daily against the defenseless Palestinian people," warned
the Syrian Foreign Ministry
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel--hostility-could-result-in-regional-war--syria-says>
in a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations on "Israel’s"
illegal airstrike on December 25.

The message couldn’t be clearer – either IOF bites the bullet on its
occupation, or braces the consequences of unmitigated bloodshed.
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