Despair is slowly showing up even in the Israeli Op-eds even if there is the greatest need for 'unity' and putting on bravado. The Gazans have not lost--at least not yet. The militias around Israel have not even used a tenth of their resources to come to the aid of Gazans.
And the Comments to the article are not as full of bravado and hope expressed by Israelis as they used to after October 7. The Comments are also well worth reading!
I couldn’t avoid seeing parallels to the war in Gaza.
www.jpost.com
Who is winning this war?
Hamas is not interested in a ceasefire because it feels it is succeeding. It is confident that Israeli bombing during Ramadan can further inflame anti-Israel sentiments in the Muslim world and beyond. It is pleased about public disagreements between Israeli and American leaders and the cooling of relations between Israel and moderate Arab states. So too, Hamas is basking in the prime minister’s sinking approval ratings and growing talk in Congress about restricting aid for Israel and even stopping the transfer of offensive weapons. And it gets bonus points for sinking support for Israel among the American electorate.
Hamas’s allies have opened fronts in Lebanon, the West Bank [Judea and Samaria], and the Red Sea, where they’ve taken the war to international shipping, threatening a broader conflict that Israel can ill afford.
How can a reviled terrorist organization that carried off the October 7 massacre marshal so much international sympathy and support for its cause? Has everyone forgotten its goal remains to wipe out the Jews and their state and erect an Iranian-style Islamic republic? Haas took the Palestinian narrative away from the weak, corrupt, and inept rival Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Fatah; forced international focus on the Palestinian issue; and created sympathy for the cause and the victims.
Meanwhile, the Israeli prime minister faces three criminal trials for corruption, is charged with ignoring the Hamas threat prior to October 7, stands accused of putting his own political fortunes ahead of the national interest, and is alienating his country’s most important allies.Is this Israel’s Vietnam?