Islam Times - Israeli Weakness and Wrong Arab Diplomacy for Gaza War

Islam Times - Gaza passed the 200th day of its heroic resistance to the full-scale Israeli invasion. The Israelis that in the beginning of war were boastfully talking about crushing the resistance forces in the coastal enclave in a short time and setting a countdown for its occupation now and after 2003 days have not only failed to make any gains, but also have reached a situation where they are resorting to any direction to get out of the self-made quagmare to at least minimize the defeat load.

Meanwhile, while even the closest Western allies of the hardline cabinet of Netanyahu no longer back its warmongering, it looks like that the Israeli leaders are resorting to concilatory Arab states to save their face.

Some senior sources have reportedly revealed that over the past few weeks, Hamas has received many proposals to facilitate a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza and to set major political lines for what some call "comprehensive peace in the region."

These sources told Ray Al-Yaum newspaper that one of the most prominent proposals Hamas has received from the Arab states was disarmament and engagement in a large-scale political process.

According to these sources, the proposal to disarm Hamas is not new, but it has recently been returned to the negotiating table. According to the proposals received, in exchange for disarmament, Hamas will obtain valid political concessions related to the internal political situation in Palestine, as well as significant support from Arab countries.

These sources also revealed that the Hamas movement has categorically rejected these proposals and considers them to be crossing its red lines. In response to these proposals, Hamas announced that what is proposed is a dangerous and unprecedented Arab development in the case of the Palestinian issue and is in line with the conditions of Netanyahu.

In a speech, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan called the disarmament idea "naive", adding that it does not consider the realities of resistance and so talking about putting aside the resistance is an illusion.

"Talking about disarmament is not correct, and indeed, when the Palestinian state is formed [according to Israeli conditions], there will be no armed factions," said Ibrahim al-Madhoun, an Arab author and political researcher. Continuing his words, he said, "The goal of Hamas is to establish a Palestinian state, but it does not want to make the mistakes that other Palestinian parties have made before, and the resistance does not accept making great concessions."

Wrong watch: Catastrophe in Israel, Arab pressures on Hamas

The new Arab trick serves mostly the interests of the Israelis than the Palestinians. Despite the fact that Gaza has been reduced to ruins because of barbarous Israeli attacks over the past seven months, the situation in the Israeli regime is way more critical. The rocket attacks of the Palestinian resistance on the occupied territories and the fleeing of the Israeli settlers to the shelters have disrupted the administration of affairs in these areas and caused tens of billions of dollars of financial damage to the Israeli regime. The daily protests of the citizens against the Netanyahu government to stop the war and return the prisoners held by Hamas show that the settlers are fed up with this situation.

Contrary to the claim of hardliners in Tel Aviv about the great achievements in Gaza, Israeli analysts and media have acknowledged that Hamas has not been defeated and that its leader Yahya Sinwar goes out of his hideout to enjoy the daylight, while the Israeli streets are deserted and there are tens of thousands of Israelis who do not know when they will be able to return to their homes.

Israeli Channel 13 reports that 7 months have gone of war in Gaza and on the eve of Passover, neither Hamas has been weakened, nor prisoners were released, nor has Israel managed to rebuild its deterrence, and nor has it managed to rebuild security of Gaza Envelope, and this is a bad result of war.

"At the end of the Rafah operation, we return the keys to Hamas, like what we did in Khan Yunis and Gaza City. This model of military success and dangerous political failure is repeated again and again with Netanyahu's failed political management," the channel further said.

Hardline officials in Tel Aviv claim that Sinwar has lost the ability to manage the war and lead the Palestinian fighters, but the evidence shows that he continues with his normal plans without any fear of the enemy.

A Hamas source told Al-Arabi al-Jadeed newspaper on Tuesday that Yahya Sinwar recently inspected the areas where he witnessed the conflict between the resistance and the occupying army and met with some fighters of the movement on the ground and not in the tunnels. Discussions recently took place between the leadership of the movement inside and outside - without their nature being specified - during which Sinwar briefed the leaders abroad about the situation of the resistance in the Gaza Strip and and provided them with accurate data on the firm conditions and power of the resistance to counter the occupation forces. Sinwar's meeting with other resistance leaders while the Israelis claim to control all of Gaza shows that he is still leading the fighting against the Israeli regime with strength and is thinking about the post-victory era.

However, the new initiative of the Arab countries has nothing to do with the situation on the ground, and one can even think that the Arab rulers have rushed to help the Israelis leave the war scene with dignity and realize the unattainable dream of disarming the resistance for Tel Aviv.

Arab concilatory leaders earlier showed the distance between words and action in support to Palestine with their assistance to interception of Iranian drones and missiles fired at Israeli regime.

Arab rulers think that by playing in the American-Israeli game to disarm the resistance in the ceasefire negotiations they can prevent the transformation process of regional power equations after Operations Al-Aqsa Storm and True Promise by Hamas and Iran, which have changed the face of security in the region. But they are unaware of the fact that the Israeli failure to make any gains in the war has been because of arms and sacrifices of Hamas and Islamic Jihad that have managed to foist the deterrence equations on the ground.

Hard-line leaders of Israel and their Western supporters are demanding an end to the war due to global pressure and massive losses in the Israeli ranks, as they know very well that the continuation of the war in Gaza will bring them nothing but heavy costs. American and Israeli officials have openly admitted that it is impossible to destroy Hamas, and American intelligence services have confirmed that Hamas has a strong arsenal of weapons that can fight against the Israeli military for months.

Exaggerating the capabilities of the Israeli regime, the Arab governments over the past 7 months have tried to plant this false belief among the Arab public that the Israeli army is invincible and therefore they should compromise and give up on the Palestinian cause. In Arab rulers' viewpoint, surrendering to the Israeli occupation is the only way to guarantee the security of the Palestinians, but the experience of the past 75 years proves otherwise. Hamas, which is not even militarily comparable to the equipment of the Arab armies, has single-handedly grounded the Israeli military in Gaza and grabbed the calm from the Israeli settlers.

Israeli military has been following two goals behind Gaza invasion: Destroying Hamas and freeing Israeli prisoners, but it has failed to fulfill any of them. Presently, thousands of Hamas fighters in secret tunnels battle their Israeli enemy, and Israelis with their state-of-the-art technology and equipment have so far managed to discover only 20 percent of these tunnels, while the Israeli prisoners remain held by resistance groups. A source in Hamas leadership on Tuesday said that this group alone holds 30 Shin Bet generals and officers captivated on October 7 from some very sensitive security sites. Therefore, with such prisoners, Hamas holds the winning card and can wrest privileges from its enemy on the negotiating table.

Tightening Israel security encirclement

Another field reality ignored by the Arab countries and which is an important trump card held by the resistance on the negotiating table is the intensified attacks of resistance from various fronts and tightening the security encirclement on Israeli regime.

Yemen's Ansarullah, which has reduced the Israeli ships navigation in the Red Sea to zero in the past months, has recently warned that it will widen its operations against Israeli and allied Western interests. Since the situation in the Red Sea is caused by the war in Gaza, the heads of Tel Aviv and the White House are trying to get rid of Ansarullah's operations by stopping the war in Gaza and resuming safe shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.

Resistance groups in Iraq and Lebanon for their part launch their missile and drone attacks on the Israeli positions and American military bases in Iraq and Syria. Reports by Israeli media suggest that for the fear of Lebanese Hezbollah attacks, so far 70,000 Israelis fled their homes on the border with Lebanon and do not want to return under war conditions.

The reality is that the Israeli deterrence equations against the branches of Axis of Resistance have vanished and this is something former and current officials admit. With regard to the ongoing attacks of resistance groups from several fronts, Israeli settlers feel the fear more than Gaza residents. Wave of resignation of top Israeli security officials due to war failures indicates that contrary to Netanyahu’s claims, the regime is weakened from within.