After Shalit…The Gaza War and the Changing Personal Views of Israel | Opinion

One of the strategic shifts brought about by the current war in Gaza is the abandonment of the Israeli government’s commitment to protecting individuals or citizens of the country from the Jews, first and foremost by providing them with self-security through fences – the power of which, represented by the military, is promoted day and night has huge influence. The military has long adopted a combat doctrine based on foreign warfare and pre-emptive attacks, as has the intelligence service “Mossad” and with it the internal security “Shin Bet”.

Successive Israeli governments seem to have always been committed to providing security to the individual, among them it is well known that one of the main goals of the state is to make the individual feel at ease wherever he is, at home or traveling, whether indoors or out of the country, in war and In peacetime, Jewish citizens in particular are free to deal with… “gentiles,” whether they are Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, or Arabs in 1948, or even Arabs today. Arab regional environment.

Avoid Free Death:

If an important aspect of the theory of armed warfare is based on the protection of individual combatants and their own preservation, making it an integral part of the operational theory of modern and contemporary armies, then this question takes on a much deeper and stricter significance. The Israeli army is sized so that the soldier is fully equipped – his weapons and supplies, as well as his training and the battle plan in which he participates – to prevent an easy, cheap and free death.

The Israeli soldier, whether in the army or in the reserves, has long believed that his country will not abandon him. If he is injured in battle, he will receive the best possible treatment to preserve his life and property. Be as healthy as possible. Israel will not leave him if he is captured, even if it engages in an all-out war with Hezbollah, as happened in July 2006, or enters into difficult negotiations to retrieve him, as was the case with Hamas. Soldier Shalit. Even if the Israeli was killed and buried far away, his body would still haunt the government until they returned it to Israel for burial. If he dies in battle, the state will provide his family with an appropriate pension to ensure they can live a decent economic life.

We saw how Israeli intelligence took risks to recover the body of pilot Aaron Arad who crashed in Lebanon, and how Tel Aviv replaced one soldier, Shalit, with 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in 2011. Until then, Israel is making every effort to recover the bodies or remains of soldiers killed for this purpose during the war, or soldiers captured during the war with Arab armies.

Limited manpower store:

This vision and behavior are always explained within the framework of four reasons:

1 – Human insularity: Israel claims to be the state of the Jewish people, of whom there are very few Jews worldwide compared to followers of other religions, especially Christianity and Islam. Since the number of Jews is limited, especially considering that they are infertile for many reasons and the Jews have little faith in the idea of ​​promoting their religion, the chances of compensating individuals among them are very slim, so protecting the living beings among them seems It is simultaneously a religious, political and historical mission.

2 – Create an attractive state: Israel promotes itself to the Jews as a state that protects anyone who chooses Israel as their homeland, whether he lives abroad and prefers it to other countries in which he has citizenship, or whether he lives in Israel may be born into it and leave it not to others.

3 – Create an effective government: Every Israeli government is keen to enhance its legitimacy and prestige, which makes it dedicated to achieving material benefits for Israeli Jews in particular. At its core is the question of protecting the individual, starting from protecting himself, right up to providing him with adequate food, clothing, shelter, medicine, medical care, education and entertainment.

4 – Preserving social cohesion: One thing that Jewish citizens of Israel believe in is that the state and its military, police and security services will not hesitate to protect everyone. This appears to be an unwritten contract between members of the people, which is translated into general budgets, political and media discourse, educational curricula, party programs and the perceptions of various religious sects or groups.

Exposing the Lies of the Protectorate:

This doctrine was firmly in force on October 7, 2023, the day the “Al-Aqsa Flood” began, and it was clearly realized not only among Israelis, but also by the Palestinian resistance movement itself and based on part of its fighting strategy Otherwise, it would not have planned to kidnap a group of prisoners. Tel Aviv bargained for their return in exchange for emptying thousands of Palestinian prisoners from prisons.

But from the beginning, the current Israeli government seemed ready to abandon this doctrine, if only temporarily, in order to heal the deep wounds suffered by military operations that exposed the Protectorate’s lies. Suppressing the military demonstrates its decline; exposing intelligence agencies demonstrates its failures; exposing internal security reveals its weaknesses.

From the beginning, there was intense discussion within Israel about the implementation of the Hannibal Protocol, which would have meant even the possibility of sacrificing prisoners in order to prevent the country from yielding and forcing it to negotiate and take action over the prisoner issue. A large-scale military attack to regain them unconditionally by force.

Various Israeli media outlets are talking about the need to strike a decisive blow against the Palestinian resistance, even if it results in the killing of all prisoners. If this approach were opposed by the families of prisoners or some of the soldiers mobilized for the Gaza campaign, their voices would be drowned out by the clamor of those who wish to exaggerate the violence against the resistance, and no one will. Those calling for a brutal war believe that what happened on October 7 threatens Israel’s survival in an unprecedented way.

As the Palestinian resistance resumes its use of this tradition, Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Izdin al-Qassam Brigades, and others have repeatedly spoken of how Israel’s brutal and indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Gaza threatens the lives of prisoners. Spread across multiple locations – this warning fell on deaf ears in Tel Aviv, and the warning followed a path of blood and destruction.

Shaken trust and shaky faith:

If this new Israeli position blows away many of the cards for resistance, whether it has to do with bargaining over the use of prisoners, not anticipating a ground invasion, or ruling out a protracted war, it also seriously kills an aspect of Israel. This will undoubtedly depend on the individual’s perception of his future ability to protect his country, whether he lives inside Israel or outside its borders, and listens to the propaganda and temptations presented to him. in order to pack up and head to Israel.

This road is one of Israel’s long-term losses, as it will lead to the emigration of some Jews from this road and the reluctance of some Jews to come to it after citizens become confident in the country’s commitment to Israel. The shaken rule established over the past few decades is one of the reasons they have established stability in the lands they occupy, strengthening their sense of belonging to the country and motivating them to defend and spread it.

This makes the current war a powerful focus for propaganda attacking a capable and attractive protectorate, and repaints the future image of Israel on a different basis, especially if underestimation of individuals occurs again. With the concept of violation, the Palestinian resistance adds another positive score to its long-term strategy of struggle against Israel.