What is Israel's endgame in Gaza? - opinion

After the horrific acts of merciless barbarism against innocent Israeli civilians perpetrated by bloodthirsty Hamas terrorists on Simchat Torah, it is hard to write looking forward and not back.

As this is being written, tens of thousands of IDF soldiers are stationed near Gaza, ready to enter. Israel’s security cabinet has met multiple times and made decisions that have remarkably not been leaked to the press. Chances are that the ministers were briefed about the IDF’s operational tactics and targets. But has anyone decided the actual goals of the war?

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, the minister closest to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke generally about his government’s objectives in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday, a day in which he attended security cabinet meetings and was on the phone when US President Joe Biden called Netanyahu.  “We need to cripple the capacity of the terrorists,” Dermer said, without revealing too many details.

What does that mean?

We obviously don’t know.

But we know it means a very different end result than all other wars and operations in Gaza that ended up with Hamas completely uncrippled. 

It means there will be a change in the paradigm, because if not, what is the point of risking the lives of Israel’s impressive soldiers and the reservists who left lucrative jobs to fight for the country?

Here is an important suggestion: the IDF needs to craft a security zone around the Gaza Strip to prevent future infiltrations. The security zone would be no man’s land and would not enable additional surprises. 

It was not safe to have communities so close to the Gaza Strip that has been controlled by terrorists since the 2007 Hamas takeover. Such a security zone would obviously not stop rocket attacks, but it would give the Iron Dome missile defense system additional precious seconds to protect people. 

Israel has had security zones on its border before, including in Lebanon. A security zone on the Lebanese border can be restored.   

During the time the security zone is in place, international efforts must be made to inculcate a culture of peace in the next generation of Gazans and eliminate a culture of terrorism.

Dermer spoke about how Iran initiated the war in an effort to “scuttle a historic breakthrough in the Middle East.”

It is interesting that after betting pools were created on whether the potential agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia would be sabotaged by Israel, the Palestinians, or Biden, it ended up being Iran.  

Biden, of course, did his part, too.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s attacks after authorizing them at a meeting in Beirut last Monday. 

The Biden administration admitted on Saturday that there was “no doubt” Tehran has been providing support for Hamas in the form of funding and arms, the Journal reported.

What connects these two reports is that the Biden administration has enabled Iran to receive access to billions of dollars that were frozen in South Korea. It also distributed hundreds of millions of dollars in US taxpayer funds to the Palestinians.

Internal documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon in August found that despite internal assessments that such funding could boost Hamas, the Biden administration allocated the money anyway. The internal documents included the draft of the exemption request and internal emails about the need for the Treasury Department to grant it.

“We assess there is a high-risk Hamas could potentially derive indirect, unintentional benefit from US assistance to Gaza,” the State Department wrote in a draft sanctions exemption request circulated internally in March 2021, shortly after Biden took office, according to the report. “Notwithstanding this risk, State believes it is in our national security interest to provide assistance in the West Bank and Gaza to support the foreign policy objectives.”

The Biden administration must acknowledge its role in facilitating the worst terrorist attacks on Israeli soil in the 75-year history of the Jewish state.

It must make up for this strategic error by giving full support to Israel to do everything necessary to ensure that Hamas and Islamic Jihad will never be able to attack Israel again from Gaza, Judea, or Samaria.

Finally, Biden must seek a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia along the parameters of the Abraham Accords, with no Palestinian involvement or concessions to the corrupt Palestinian Authority or the terrorist organizations. 

That would prove that lessons have been learned from mistakes. Moving forward while never forgetting the atrocities of October 7, that should be the end game of the war in Gaza

The writer is chairman of the Religious Zionists of America, chairman of the Center for Righteousness and Integrity, president of the Culture for Peace Institute, and a committee member of the Jewish Agency. He was appointed by former US President Donald Trump as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. The views expressed are his own. Martinoliner@gmail.com