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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/the-real-capitulation">english.almayadeen.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The real capitulation</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Hannan Hussain</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">January 2, 2024<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><p>The
message couldn’t be clearer – either IOF bites the bullet on its
occupation, or braces the consequences of unmitigated bloodshed.</p><img src="cid:ii_lqwitt430" alt="560afce1-4f67-4068-aac3-d8699f335503.jpg" width="417" height="328"><br><div><ul id="gmail-content-slick-0"><div aria-hidden="false"><li>"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)
</li></div></ul>
<p>It is public knowledge that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF)<a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/golani-s-13th-battalion-withdraws-from-gaza-after-al-shujaiy"> have taken a firm beating </a>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" <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/iof-acknowledges-498-soldiers-killed--2066-injured-since-oct">rising death and injury tolls</a>
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 <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/resistance-forces-iof-to-partially-retreat-in-northern-gaza">"Israel’s" ethnic cleansing scheme</a> against Gaza. These figures bury the myth of Israeli tactical competence, and its so-called gains across occupied territories.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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 <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-officials-say-aggression-to-last-2-month-or-more--un">months of more humiliation</a>.
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 <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel--unable-to-eliminate-hamas--will-have-to-withdraw--r">classic exercise in futility</a>.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/resistance-forces-iof-to-partially-retreat-in-northern-gaza">from the final toll and manipulate</a>
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 <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/resistance-forces-iof-to-partially-retreat-in-northern-gaza">than what the figures establish</a>. </p>
<p>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 <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/confrontations-in-several-parts-of-west-bank-as-iof-incursio">same occupation army feels increasingly overwhelmed</a> by the power, discipline, and sophistication of Palestine’s organized Resistance.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-comptroller-vows-mass-probe-into-failures-on-october">across “policy, military, and civilian” domains</a>.
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.</p>
<p>The specter of a “mass probe” into the occupation’s strategic and tactical incompetence is <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-comptroller-vows-mass-probe-into-failures-on-october">likely to take that pressure up a notch</a>.
Pressure from the comptroller’s office is reportedly set to span
occupation policymakers, military officials, and above all, Netanyahu’s
own security cabinet.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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," <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel--hostility-could-result-in-regional-war--syria-says">warned the Syrian Foreign Ministry</a> in a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations on "Israel’s" illegal airstrike on December 25.</p>
<p>The message couldn’t be clearer – either IOF bites the bullet on its
occupation, or braces the consequences of unmitigated bloodshed.</p></div></div></div>
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