The journey ahead is long, but a clear direction emerges
One year after October 7, a clear direction is emerging. The journey’s end is not yet here however, and the decisions we adopt now will influence Israel’s security for years to come. Despite the optimism that is developing, we must not forget that important battles and dangers still await us. At the start of the war, it was apparent that the ground forces the level of strength was insufficient for intensive fighting on several fronts at once. It was only after 11 months of war that the State of Israel was able to shift the campaign’s center of gravity from the south to the north.
Most decisions were right
Nevertheless, the fighting has been handled successfully overall and most decisions have been correct. However, there are at least three points where it would have been advisable to have acted differently. First, it would have been better to maintain the same operational pressure that we had applied to Hamas at the start of the war. Secondly, the incursion into Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor was mounted too late. Thirdly, Israel has still not taken proper control over humanitarian aid that enters Gaza. The aid is intended for the citizenry but in practice it falls into the hands of Hamas operatives.
The Current State of War
The southern front
Today we have indeed reached the point where Hamas has lost most of its military capacity. At the beginning of the war, fighting needed to be systematic, moving street by street in order to eliminate the terrorists and destroy their infrastructures. Today, most of the fighting in Gaza is carried out in pinpoint incursions and in precision attacks. These attacks include those on its leadership which important aspect in preventing Hamas from regaining strength later.
The northern front
During the past month, most of the fighting has been concentrated at the Lebanese border. Especially prominent are the attacks via the pagers and walkie-talkies of the organization’s operatives as attributed to Israel. Those operations struck thousands of terrorists simultaneously — most of them from the Radwan Force, Hezbollah’s elite fighting unit. While all that was happening, we were also witness to unceasing attacks by the Israel Air Force.
Important conclusions from the first year
The catastrophe of October 7 last year awakened Israel from a long sleep and made it aware of the sizeable threats it faces. In order for Israel to remain secure over coming generations, it must take action at a number of levels. Firstly, we must revise our outdated national security doctrine to include an element of zero tolerance for terrorist armies at our borders. The State must also deal with the matter of governance within the country to ensure that all Jewish residents of Israel feel safe.
The State of Israel must also subdue the forces that that are generating anti-Israeli activity at the UN and at the courts in the Hague. We must unite the nation under the basic values on which the State of Israel was founded and under the Zionist–Jewish ethos nobly expressed in Israel’s proclamation of independence. To that end, not serving in the military is out of the question. Therefore we must establish an enlisted society here, in which all citizens of the state participate.
To conclude- As we triumph, so shall we thrive: Israel on the Day After
The victory that we found difficult to visualize a year ago is taking form before our eyes, even though the way ahead is still long. Today, most of the Israeli public believes that we can attain victory on all the fronts. We of the IDSF movement do not wish to content ourselves with victory in itself. We hope to see this land thrive and grow. Moreover, our economy will recover and burgeon.
The article was originally published on ynetnews
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the movement
