Tipping point: Israel’s military peak has come and gone
Mohamad Hasan Sweidan | Facing internal resignations and significant military setbacks, Israel is at a crucial tipping point: it must choose between stopping its war on Gaza and cutting its losses, or escalating conflict in Gaza and Lebanon and risking further strategic defeat. | On the evening of 9 June, Israeli war cabinet ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot announced their resignation from the emergency government. This is not a step two war ministers in a government heading for victory would take. On the contrary. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they say, is “preventing us from advancing toward true victory.” ■ By resigning, Gantz and Eisenkot aim at two main objectives. First, they want to alleviate the pressure on Netanyahu to accept a deal to stop the war, a strategy likely coordinated with Washington. ■ Second, being among the most informed Israeli officials on the state of the war, they chose to jump ship, anticipating that Netanyahu’s continued insistence on prolonging the war would only lead to further disaster. In military terms, this means they have assessed that Israel’s Gaza operations have “peaked.”
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