The real goal of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza

Never in its history of war and military occupation has Israel been so incapable of developing a coherent plan for its future and the future of its victims.

Even a quick glance at the headlines in the international media reveals the depth of the Israeli dilemma. While Tel Aviv continues to carry out a genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza, it seems to have no idea what to do beyond simply destroying the Strip and its people.

Even Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who could soon be officially wanted by the International Criminal Court, has indicated on multiple occasions that Israel has no postwar plan in Gaza. “Since October, I have been raising this issue consistently in the Cabinet and have received no response,” Gallant said in May.

Others suggest that Netanyahu and his far-right government might have a plan but, according to US Sen. Chris Murphy, there is “no workable plan” and, according to Vox, it “is no plan at all.” This is inconsistent with the wishes of the US administration.

True, both Israel and the US are in full agreement regarding the war itself. Even after Washington finally began shifting its position from wanting the war to continue to asking Netanyahu to conclude his bloody task, American weapons have continued to flow at the same rate.

Ever more delusional plans, pertaining to both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, continue to be leaked to the media

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

The Americans, however, are not convinced that destroying Hamas, fully demilitarizing Gaza, taking control of the Gaza-Egypt border, shutting down UNRWA and “de-radicalizing” the besieged Palestinian population is the right approach.

Netanyahu himself must have long known this. But still his exhausted army keeps moving from one phase to the next, declaring “tactical victories” without achieving a single strategic goal in Gaza.

The most optimistic estimation of the Israeli army is that its war, which has practically destroyed all of Gaza, has resulted in a stalemate. A more sober reading of the war, according to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, is that Israel must end it before “sinking into the moral abyss.”

But ever more delusional plans, pertaining to both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, continue to be leaked to the media.

The first major leak was a taped recording of a speech by the extremist and very influential finance minister in Netanyahu’s Cabinet, Bezalel Smotrich. “I’m telling you, it’s mega-dramatic. Such changes change a system’s DNA,” Smotrich told a group of Jewish Israeli settlers in June, according to The New York Times. The minister’s “carefully orchestrated program” hinges on transferring the authority of the West Bank from the occupation army to a group of civilians under his leadership. The goal is to seize more Palestinian land, expand the illegal settlements and prevent any possible continuity of a viable Palestinian state.

In fact, the plan is already underway. In May, Israel appointed Hillel Roth, a close ally of Smotrich, as the deputy in the West Bank Civil Administration.

The plan for Gaza is another episode of cruelty, and it is also delusional. It was revealed this month in an article by the editor of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Aluf Benn wrote that Netanyahu’s plan also consists of the hiring of an Israeli “governor of Gaza,” Lt. Col. Elad Goren, who became head of the humanitarian-civilian effort in the Strip in August.

Almost every Israeli scheme seems to involve killing Palestinians in large numbers, starving them or displacing them en masse

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

Using a combination of tactics, including starvation and military pressure, Netanyahu wants to drive the population of northern Gaza to the south in preparation for formally annexing the region and bringing back Jewish settlers.

These are not the only plans that have been leaked or, at times, openly communicated by Israeli officials. At the start of the war, ideas like ethnically cleansing the Gaza population into Sinai were advocated by Israeli officials and were also the main topic of discussion on Israeli evening news programs.

Some Israeli officials spoke of fully occupying Gaza, while Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu floated the idea of dropping a nuclear bomb.

The plan of evacuating Gaza did not work simply because the Palestinians would not leave and Egypt rejected the insinuation that ethnically cleansing Gazans was an option. Additionally, the total depopulation of northern Gaza also did not work, partly because Israel was massacring civilians in both the north and the south at comparable rates.

Israel’s new plans will not succeed in achieving what the original plans failed to do, simply because Israel continues to face the same obstacle: the steadfastness of the Palestinian people.

However, much can still be learned from the nature of the Israeli schemes, both old and new — mainly the fact that Israel regards the Palestinian people as the enemy.

This conclusion is not only gleaned through statements by top Israeli officials, including President Isaac Herzog, who said that “an entire nation out there … is responsible.” Almost every Israeli scheme seems to involve killing Palestinians in large numbers, starving them or displacing them en masse. This means that the Israeli war has always been a war against the Palestinian people. The Palestinians themselves know it. Should the rest of the world not also know it by now?

• Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and author. He is editor of The Palestine Chronicle and nonresident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappe, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out.” X: @RamzyBaroud