by Sara Flounders, published on Workers World, September 19, 2024
In a blasting news interview on Israel’s Channel 12 on Sept. 15, Major General Israel Ziv, the army’s former head of operations in Gaza, asserted that the Zionist military is stuck in Gaza and has suffered significant losses during its 11-month offensive in the besieged Strip. Ziv stated that Israel “must withdraw immediately” and is “bleeding and trapped in a dire quagmire.”
Ziv, who formerly commanded the Gaza Division, added that after a year of what he called “the longest and most exhausting war in Israel’s history, the country finds itself trapped in a continuous security crisis with no end in sight.” The interview received wide coverage and commentary in both the Zionist media and in Arab and Iranian media throughout the region.
Quagmire: the defining word
A quagmire exposes the dilemma. Stuck! The Zionist military campaign can’t maintain its position and can’t move forward, meaning Israel can’t win against a Palestinian resistance that is engaged in an unequal battle, but is well-schooled in the tactics of protracted guerilla war — or people’s war — with support from the overwhelming majority of the occupied population against an opponent with vastly superior military equipment.
Israel is stuck because its leaders know that pulling out is an announcement of their defeat.
As Ziv cautions Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “In the north, Israel is in a war of attrition with no end in sight, and the Galilee is Hezbollah’s main range, with the northern residents as its cannon fodder.” He warned that “any ground entry into Lebanon without an exit strategy or a clear objective, even if it’s a limited invasion, would further complicate the situation.”
This admission from Ziv is in regard to Netanyahu and other voices in the Zionist media who are wildly encouraging and talking up an invasion of Lebanon. They are desperate to widen the war and draw in more active U.S. participation. However, the endless supply of U.S. weapons and satellite coordination is insufficient to save them from the “quagmire” where they are sinking fast.
Ziv contends that entering southern Lebanon would not force Hezbollah to cease firing, but would instead increase rocket and drone attacks on Israel, similar to what happened in Rafah in southern Gaza following the invasion.
New mass protests aimed at Netanyahu
Israelis have held a new wave of protests to demand Netanyahu secure the release of captives held in Gaza. The rallies were held in several cities, including Haifa and al-Quds. In Tel Aviv, protesters near Netanyahu’s residence blocked his motorcade to demand a deal with Gaza’s resistance groups.
Anti-Netanyahu protests have been going on for months in Israel. Families of the Israeli captives have released statements denouncing Netanyahu’s continuing attacks. They said if he remains in power, the war will continue forever, and all the remaining captives will die. The opposition rallies by Israelis have been hit with tear gas, assaults and soldiers on horses.
Meanwhile, Zionist settlers are waging a reign of terror in West Bank cities using bombs, bulldozers and tanks. Increasingly they face return fire.
The Israeli regime added new conditions to a truce proposal by the U.S. that Hamas had already agreed to months ago. Ziv asserted Netanyahu might be prolonging the war to secure his political position and delay his corruption trial, which could result in his imprisonment. He also noted that while Netanyahu claimed six months ago that victory was near, the war now seems endless.
Israel’s economy is sinking fast
Inside the Zionist state, the economy is sinking fast. Israeli ports are closed based on the Yemeni resistance force Ansarullah’s enforcement of a blockade that has extended beyond the Red Sea into the Mediterranean Sea. The Times of Israel reported on July 18 that 46,000 businesses have shut down since October 7. This number is expected to grow to 60,000 closed businesses in 2024. (tinyurl.com/mr2vn25y)
An article in the Aug. 16 Foreign Policy, a magazine that is uniformly pro-imperialist, declared: “Israel is in serious trouble. Its citizens are deeply divided, and this situation is unlikely to improve. It is bogged down in an unwinnable war in Gaza, its military is showing signs of strain, and a wider war with Hezbollah or Iran remains a possibility. … Moreover, Israel’s openly exposed genocide in Gaza, seen around the world in many thousands of videos, has gravely damaged its global image, and it is becoming a pariah state in ways that were once unimaginable.” (tinyurl.com/4vu93x4y)
Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, has applied for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Meanwhile the International Court of Justice has issued preliminary findings describing Israel’s actions as plausibly genocidal in nature and intent, and the court has at long last issued a report that states the occupation and colonization of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem is a clear violation of international law.
New missiles assumed to be from Yemen, broke through the Iron Dome and hit Israel from the east. They appeared to evade Israeli and the complicit Jordanian and Egyptian surveillance systems and successfully made an impact at the Gezer Power Plant, southeast of Tel Aviv.
Resistance News Network reports that several middle batteries, which are basic missile firing units, were unable to protect Tel Aviv’s infrastructure. Hezbollah missiles fired from Lebanon have repeatedly breached the Iron Dome. All settlements in the northern part of the Zionist settler state have been forced to evacuate. These missile attacks are increasing in accuracy and intensity.
Sara Flounders is an American political writer who has been active in ‘progressive’ and anti-war organizing since the 1960s. Sara is Co-Director of the International Action Center (IAC) and a member of the Secretariat of Workers World Party She also frequently writes for Workers World newspaper and publishes articles on the International Action Center website