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Israel Has No Alternative but to Pursue the War Against Hamas
(Israel Hayom) Meir Ben Shabbat - As the fighting in Gaza continues, Israel faces challenges and threats from another six fronts: the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and the diplomatic-legal international system. Recognizing we are in an existential struggle, being confident of our cause, resolve, and solidarity are key to success on all fronts. In the Gaza war, Israel needs a decisive, unambiguous, and indisputable victory. Deterrence will not be restored if the narrative emerges that Israel had not achieved its goals. Were that narrative to emerge, Israel's enemies would feel even more inclined to attack, and its diplomatic stature would suffer a lethal blow. Israel has no alternative but to pursue the war's goals until they are fully met. In the conditions created in Gaza, there is no practical, safe way to enable civilian aid to the population without it being seized by Hamas, unless the IDF distributes it. One cannot rely on the "neutrality" of international bodies, or expect them to withstand Hamas pressure. The same holds for foreign states. The writer, a former Israeli national security advisor, is chairman of the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy in Jerusalem.