|
Trending Topics
|
Source: https://jiss.org.il/en/jiss-illusions-of-the-day-after/
Illusions of "The Day After"
(Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security) Prof. Efraim Inbar - The ability of Israel - or even global superpowers - to politically engineer states in the Middle East is extremely limited. Israel's war in Gaza may succeed in eliminating most of Hamas's military capabilities and expelling its leadership from Gaza - as it did with the PLO in Lebanon in 1982 - but Israeli military power cannot temper the deep-rooted hostility of the Palestinian national movement toward Zionism. The religious fervor of the Islamist Hamas has instilled in the hearts of young Gazans a desire to take revenge on their hated enemies. Without a reformed Palestinian education system, terrorism against Israel will persist wherever there are Palestinians. Many Arab states have failed to establish a monopoly on the use of force within their borders. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Sudan all suffer from civil wars or armed militias that do not obey the central government. This has also been the fate of the two Palestinian entities: the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas-controlled Gaza. In the PA, various armed groups pursue their own agenda. And even in Gaza, Islamic Jihad and armed clans exist alongside Hamas. There is no reason to assume that "the day after" in Gaza will be much different or that the territory will be demilitarized. Only sustained Israeli military activity can enforce demilitarization. The writer is the former head of JISS (2017-2025).