<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-top-anchor"></div>
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container">
</div><div class="gmail-container" lang="en-US" dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/on-all-fronts-has-israel-been-strategically-defeated/">palestinechronicle.com</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">‘On All Fronts’ - Has Israel Been Strategically Defeated?</h1>April 9, 2024<br></div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div>
<img src="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Israeli-War-Cabinet_PC.png" alt="" title="Israeli War Cabinet_PC" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="408" height="274" style="margin-right: 25px;">
Is Israel losing the war? (Image: Palestine Chronicle)
<p><strong>By <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/robert-inlakesh" title="Display all articles for Robert Inlakesh">Robert Inlakesh</a></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<h3>Today, the Palestinian movement for national liberation is more
popular than ever before and the Palestinian Resistance remains
steadfast.</h3>
</blockquote>
<p><span>Israel initiated its war on Gaza last October with two clear
goals, neither of which have been achieved, while meanwhile they have
suffered severe blows on the military, security, political, legal,
economic and public relations fronts.</span></p>
<p><span>When Israel began its campaign of mass murder inside the Gaza
Strip, following the Hamas-led attack on October 7, it repeatedly named
its two primary military objectives as the total annihilation of Hamas
and the return of its political prisoners by force. </span></p>
<h4><strong>Military Capabilities</strong></h4>
<p><span>At this current stage, Israel has failed to even eliminate the
smaller Palestinian armed factions in Gaza, such as the Salahudeen
Brigades (Popular Resistance Committees), Mujahideen Brigades (The
Mujahideen movement), Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades (PFLP) and others, let
alone the much more powerful Qassam Brigades of Hamas. </span></p>
<p><span>By Israel’s own admission, at least 80% of the underground
tunnel infrastructure of the Resistance groups, remains intact beneath
Gaza. </span></p>
<p><span>As for the statistic released that some 9,000 to 12,000
Palestinian fighters have been killed, not only has there been zero
evidence to support this claim, but Israel labels all these supposed
combatants as “Hamas”, which begs the question as to why they have not
announced confirmed kills of members of the some dozen armed groups
which make up the Joint Room of Resistance factions; all of which are
participating in the battle.</span></p>
<h4><strong>Israeli Captives</strong></h4>
<p><span>As for the return of Israel’s captives, seized by the various
Palestinian Resistance groups on October 7, they claim to have stumbled
upon a female Israeli prisoner early into their initial ground invasion
of Gaza.</span></p>
<p><span>She was not claimed by any faction to have been held captive by
them and was likely held by non-Resistance fighters who crossed the
separation fence on the day of the Hamas-planned military raid.</span></p>
<p><span>In addition to this, there was a claim that two elderly Israeli
prisoners were seized by the occupation military, for which an
Al-Mayadeen report later alleged that they were being held by a civilian
family that sought to collaborate with the Israeli army for benefits. </span></p>
<p><span>Other than this, the unhinged and indiscriminate Israeli aerial
bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 50 Israelis who were being held
captive; according to the Qassam Brigades. While the only significant
release of Israeli prisoners of war alive came during a prisoner
exchange that was conducted back in late November.</span></p>
<h4><strong>Stiff Resistance</strong></h4>
<p><span>This, as the Palestinian armed groups have continued to attack
Israeli military formations, guarded positions and penetrating forces,
inflicting significant losses on the occupation army. </span></p>
<p><span>The rocket fire from Gaza has also continued throughout the six
months of war, without any sign that the arsenal of weapons belonging
to the Palestinian factions is near depletion. </span></p>
<p><span>Despite claiming to have achieved the wiping out of the Hamas
command and control in various areas, the daily communiques and videos
released by the group indicate this to be false; while in the
negotiations over a ceasefire, Hamas refuses to bow down on its initial
requests regarding an Israeli withdrawal, the return of residents of the
north to their homes and a permanent ceasefire.</span></p>
<p><span>Despite the overwhelming technological, manpower and firepower
advantages of the Israeli military machine, which coordinates closely
with the world’s strongest military power, the United States, the
Palestinian Resistance factions have utilized their environment and
managed to inflict a large number of embarrassing military defeats on
Israel’s most advanced army units. </span></p>
<p><strong>Horror of Humanity</strong></p>
<p><span>All Israel has to show for its military campaign is the
slaughter of around 40,000 Palestinian civilians (including the some
7,000 missing and presumed dead), along with the annihilation of Gaza’s
crucial civilian infrastructure. </span></p>
<p><span>The world, watching the unhinged mass murder of civilians,
roughly 70 percent of whom have been women and children, have reacted in
utter horror at one of the worst series of war crimes committed since
World War 2. </span></p>
<p><span>The collective horror of humanity has resulted in unrelenting
grassroots protest movements throughout the planet, from South Korea to
South Africa, from Washington DC to London, there have been mass marches
united in their demand for an immediate and lasting ceasefire.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span>Nations around the world are withdrawing ambassadors, severing
diplomatic ties, stopping arms sales and recognising the State of
Palestine at the United Nations. </span></p>
<p><span>Even the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which represented the
leading normalizing nation of the so-called “Abraham Accords”, has
withdrawn its ambassador, while normalization between Saudi Arabia and
Israel has proven impossible; despite it being the primary foreign
policy objective of the Biden administration in West Asia. </span></p>
<h4><strong>International Law</strong></h4>
<p><span>South Africa achieved a landslide victory (15-2) in its case at
the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of violations
of the Genocide Convention, with the World Court deciding that their
was a plausible case that Tel Aviv was committing a Genocide in Gaza. </span></p>
<p><span>This has now led to Nicaragua filing its own case at the ICJ
against one of Israel’s top arms suppliers, Germany, for aiding Israel
in committing Genocide.</span></p>
<p><span>A United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution was passed
and violated by Israel, which had called for a ceasefire until the end
of the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan. </span></p>
<p>The UN General Assembly has also passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire, which unanimously passed.</p>
<h4><strong>Information War</strong></h4>
<p><span>All this has made it impossible for even the most pro-Israeli
leaderships and media outlets to cover up for its crimes, with even
channels like CNN and MSNBC taking a harsher tone with the Israeli
government.</span></p>
<p><span>On social media, the information war has been decisively won by
anti-war activists and has invigorated the younger generations of the
West to take what action they can in solidarity with the Palestinian
people, placing great pressure on Western leaderships. </span></p>
<p><span>While in Western popular culture, a sea of celebrities from the
music, sport and movie industry have taken strong stances in favor of
Palestinian human rights and a call for a ceasefire. </span></p>
<p><span>In the media, even right wing commentators that have been
traditionally pro-Israeli, have changed their tone, and the world’s top
podcaster, Joe Rogan, has labeled Israel’s actions a Genocide. The Left
in the West has also united over this issue like no other and have
provided passionate voices and a platform to defend the people of Gaza.</span></p>
<h4><strong>Internal Divisions</strong></h4>
<p><span>Meanwhile, Israel is left socially divided on internal domestic issues and is without political direction.</span></p>
<p><span> It appears inevitable that the far-right coalition of Israeli
Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will collapse over his handling of
the war. </span></p>
<p><span>Meanwhile, in the north of Israel, over 100,000 settlers have
fled their settlements and refuse to return, after Hezbollah has
launched more than 1,200 military operations that destroyed (partially
or completely) some 750 settler homes.</span></p>
<p><span>The economy of the north, for Israel, has been dismantled and
the military has been forced to concentrate over a hundred thousand
soldiers in the area that has placed even further financial pressure on
them.</span></p>
<p><span>Surrounding the Gaza Strip, many of the Israeli settlements
have been deserted in whole or in part and many refuse to return home
without the defeat of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. </span></p>
<p><span>As for in Umm al-Rashash, or what Israel calls the port city of
Eilat, the Yemeni blockade on ships passing through the Red Sea has
greatly impacted the local economy there too, as businesses go bust and
economic inactivity at the port declined by around 85% as far back as
December. </span></p>
<p><span>In the West Bank, the Israeli military has constructed over 800
new gates and checkpoints, while deploying more soldiers to the
occupied territory than it has in Gaza, in a desperate and costly
attempt to quell an uprising.</span></p>
<p><span>On every front, with the exception of the cases of the
Palestinian citizens of Israel and those living in East Jerusalem,
Resistance has erupted in consistent and major ways that Tel Aviv has
been forced to confront at great expense. Even in the cases of the
Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians of East Jerusalem, there
have been acts of armed Resistance and protests, just on a smaller
scale to the West Bank.</span></p>
<p><span>Any way you look at it, the Israeli regime has been dealt a
massive, unignorable, decisive defeat in several arenas, from which it
will likely struggle to ever fully recover from. </span></p>
<p><span>Today, the Palestinian movement for national liberation is more
popular than ever before and the Palestinian Resistance remains
steadfast. </span></p>
<p><span>There is no conceivable way, despite the immense suffering of
the people of Gaza, that Israel will come away from this unscathed and
with its image, military prestige and economy intact.</span></p>
<p><em>(The Palestine Chronicle)</em></p>
<div>
<p><br></p>
<p><span><em>– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary
filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He
contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. </em></span></p></div>
</div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>