If Bibi Netanyahu knew the history of the country he rules, he would not continue to fight an invisible phenomenon like Hamas terrorism with artillery and tanks, very useful weapons against armies, that is, against visible enemies. And he would understand that the invasion of Gaza, with a long and bloody guerrilla war tunnel by tunnel, alley by alley, is the dream of Hamas, which has been preparing it for years and is just waiting for a chicken to fall into the trap. Biden invited him not to repeat the “mistakes of the West after September 11th” (this is what he calls the million killed in Afghanistan and Iraq). But the worst mistake Israel can make is to repeat its own. He won all four wars against the Arab armies: 1948-1949, 1956, 1967 and 1973. However, he won those against terrorism only when he used intelligence (the legendary Mossad) with surgical and well-studied raids: that, which lasted twenty years, to eliminate all the terrorists involved in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics; the one, which lasted half an hour on the night of 4 July 1976, to free the passengers of the AirFrance flight hijacked by Palestinian fedayeen in Entebbe (Uganda). At least Bibi should know this last story, given that in the Israeli raid the only victim was his older brother, Lieutenant Colonel Yoni Netanyahu.
Instead, every time it has claimed to fight terrorism with the army, Israel has always lost. It happened in Lebanon’s two wars. That of 1982, unleashed by Begin and Sharon to crush the Palestinian PLO groups who were bombing the Upper Galilee from the south of the country, ended badly with: the assassination of the friendly president Gemayel; the massacre of Sabra and Shatila; Sharon and Begin at home; and in southern Lebanon, instead of the PLO, the even more ferocious pro-Iranian Hezbollah terrorists are busy attacking the Upper Galilee. And the 2006 campaign launched by the Olmert government failed after a month, with Hezbollah stronger and more violent than before. But it happened in the endless reprisals against Hamas in Gaza after the withdrawal decided by Sharon in 2005: Olmert’s operations in 2006-’08 (Summer Rain, Autumn Clouds, Warm Winter and Cast Lead); and those of Netanyahu in 2012 (Cloud Column) and ’14 (Protective Edge, with 2,200 Palestinians and 71 Israelis killed). After each operation, terrorism increased instead of decreasing and Hamas and Hezbollah, instead of weakening, strengthened. This will also be the case with Operation Iron Swords, which followed the Hamas massacre on 7 October. It remains to be seen whether Netanyahu is actually a fool or just acting like one. But, in both cases, it would be better for Israel to get rid of him immediately. Not after the ground operation. But first, to avoid it.
Il Fatto Quotidiano, October 24, 2023
This is an automatic-generated translation from the original Italian article