No, Israel’s war against Hamas not floundering

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The Times’ Middle East Editor Richard Spencer describes Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza as floundering, with little conviction behind it.

Richard Kemp

The opposite is the reality. In almost a year of fighting on the most complex battlefield in the history of war, the Israel Defense Forces has taken Hamas apart to the extent it no longer presents a serious threat to the Israeli population.

I have met hundreds of Israeli soldiers and commanders in headquarters as well as inside Gaza and on the border with Lebanon as recently as last week. Despite the extreme dangers and the length of time in the field, everywhere morale was high and conviction in the fight absolute. There exists a unity I have never before witnessed between the most seasoned generals and the teenagers on the battlefront.

Spencer also says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is loathed by most of those who work with him in a divided Cabinet. Of course, the Cabinet is divided; that is the nature of all political bodies.

Members of Winston Churchill’s War Cabinet frequently clashed amidst the unbearable tensions of making decisions on which the life or death of our country depended. Alan Brooke, the chief of staff, loathed Churchill for many reasons, but he also recognized that a war leader is not there to be liked and should be judged not on personality but on results.