Why Netanyahu lost the war to Hamas

vshis reading of events is shared by a large number of heads of state, analysts, observers and political scientists and other experts on armed conflict. As we have seen, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said this openly, saying that this war has strengthened the weight and legitimacy of Hamas. Just like Chinese and Indian officials who also highlighted the failure of the Israeli Prime Minister’s vision in the face of his intimate enemy Hamas. The latter, which caused enormous sympathy not only among the Palestinian population, in the Arab world, in Africa and elsewhere, but also within the international community. Today, he is forced to admit that it is Hamas that can defend the Palestinian people against the attacks and aggression of the Israeli army.

At the level of strategic relations and geopolitical approaches, most experts claim that Israel has lost the war against Hamas. Worse, it made him stronger, more popular, and more experienced. For Sébastien Boussois, an expert on the Middle East, author of the book “Gaza: The Historical Impasse”: “Hamas is a complete winner, especially since resistance is part of its genetics. However weakened the movement may be today, it is once again in a position of strength. He can boast that he won in front of the fifth army of the world. His demands, on every occasion of a truce, were finally accepted. On the other hand, in relation to the State of Israel, the impact is more significant and converges towards the loss of this war: “It is clear that Israel has lost everything”, specifies the analyst. As the former head of Israeli intelligence said, Israel occasionally wins battles, but never wins the war. In Gaza, a conventional army unaccustomed to guerrilla warfare can hardly gain the upper hand. Neither the 2008 war, nor the 2012 war, nor the 2014 war can be considered Israel’s military successes. The Israeli population is also beginning to realize this.

In this sense, the popularity of the Israeli prime minister is at an all-time low, and part of the Israeli street says that he is held hostage by the decisions of the Netanyahu government. This has plunged the Jewish state into a war that appears to be permanent and counterproductive at all levels, since Hamas has not been defeated or weakened. Worse, these attacks and aggressions only affected civilians, causing more than 35,000 deaths, with the massacre of no less than 14,000 children. This is why Nitzan Perelman, an expert on Israeli society, says: “Israeli political representatives say that the country is winning the war. But in reality, numerous academic and journalistic works show that Israel today is still far from victory. The government announced that it was pursuing two goals: the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas. So far, only three hostages have been freed by a military operation. Most releases were only possible thanks to negotiations. Which is a clear defeat for Benjamin Netanyahu. Even worse: “The government is pursuing a third goal: the recolonization of Gaza. This project comes from the religious Zionist right as well as several members of Likud. In 2005, Ariel Sharon’s government launched a withdrawal plan from Gaza and four communities in the northern West Bank. In March 2023, the current government repealed this law. As of October 7, a significant part of the government continued to demonstrate its desire to re-establish settlements in Gaza. Members of the government and their political supporters are therefore campaigning for the “emigration” of Gazans, so that they can move to this enclave.” A policy that must result in the emptying of the Gaza Strip of its population. A goal that is both irrational and unattainable, unless Tel Aviv openly decides to forcibly deport Palestinians. Which represents yet another defeat for Israel and international condemnation, as the Jewish state repeats history and does to the Palestinian population what Hitler did to the Jews of Europe. This is also why Mkhaimar Abusada, associate professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, says that “Hamas is undoubtedly much more popular than at the beginning of July. He was weakened, contested, politically isolated, but today everyone is lining up behind him. It has returned to the fore, not only in the Gaza Strip, but in the region as well. Not forgetting the moral influence on the Palestinian population that Israel wanted to divert from Hamas. Today, the vast majority of Palestinians line up behind Hamas, which for them represents the only force capable of resisting the IDF’s attacks: “According to the Israeli press, Israel has lost,” explains Dominique Vidal, a journalist and historian of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This third war against Gaza has failed to bring the Palestinian resistance to its knees. Breaking the truce several times, Hamas won a number of important concessions…”.

In fact, Benjamin Netanyahu has already lost the most important battle: that of public opinion. According to a poll published by the Jerusalem Post, 54% of Israelis believe they have lost the war, and the prime minister’s approval rating, which was 82% during the ground invasion of Gaza, has fallen to 32%. Meanwhile, the conflict escalates, causing more and more deaths, and each victim loses one vote for peace.