Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent NJN's views and policy positions.

On the Eve of Rosh Hashanah, What We Have Learned About Ourselves From the Past Two Years of War in Gaza

Q. Start with the most glaring failure these days: How do you explain that Israel has lost virtually all its friends, with the exception of Trump’s United States?

A. The plight of Gaza’s civilian population dominates the world’s consciousness. It reflects a massive failure of Israeli intelligence, both military and political. And it reflects a prolonged breakdown in Israeli strategic analysis concerning everything involving Gaza and Hamas. We are currently ‘conquering’ Gaza for at least the second time in two years. And still no governance strategy, no exit strategy, and no Gaza Strip recovery strategy after we have destroyed it. 

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political survival has become the dominant factor in Israeli politics, with an entire religious/messianic/rightist coalition lining up behind him. Netanyahu himself seems increasingly unhinged,yet very much in charge: a dangerous combination.

The entire security establishment--IDF, Shin Bet, Israel Police--has been politicized. Increasingly, so has the legal establishment. The Israeli popular cultural-political narrative is obsessed with grief, heroism and martyrdom. The sympathy Israel earned on October 7, 2023 has been drowned by the tens of thousands of dead in Gaza. The IDF in Gaza is all too easily perceived as an instrument of vengeance, not strategy.

Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer.