Wrath of God II: To win, Israel must assassinate Hamas leaders everywhere
Israel’s military achievements against Hamas are impressive. As part of its campaign to destroy the terrorist group, Israel has reportedly struck over 22,000 targets in the Gaza Strip and has killed some 7,000 fighters since the war broke out.
Gidon Ben-Zvii
Since Israel’s land campaign began, the IDF has discovered over eight hundred tunnels, many of which were located near or inside educational institutions, kindergartens, mosques, and playgrounds. The Israel Defence Forces destroyed approximately five hundred of these shafts. Some of the underground tunnels had linked Gaza to Israeli border communities. On October 7, heavily armed Hamas terrorists used such subterranean pathways to infiltrate Israel on their way to murdering 1,200 people, wounding thousands, and kidnapping over two hundred men, women, and children.
But while the Israeli military is striking a mighty blow against the rulers of Gaza, the tide seems to be turning in Hamas’s favour.
Rockets continue to be launched from Gaza at Israeli population centres. The amount of rocket fire has decreased, but it is impossible to know how depleted Hamas’s stockpiles are. The terrorists may be biding their time until they launch another massive salvo, possibly during the next inevitable ceasefire – when Israel would be at its most vulnerable.
Another grim truth is that while the IDF has killed thousands of Hamas fighters, the majority of the group’s estimated 30,000-strong military wing – not to mention its many civilian supporters in Gaza – remains intact.
Two other developments this week are conspiring against Israel. The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and the immediate, unconditional release of all hostages.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government over their opposition to a two-state solution. Biden also issued a dire warning: Israel was losing international support due to its “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza.
For a country disproportionately dependent on international goodwill, the US President’s remarks left Israelis feeling increasingly isolated.
In short, Israel is winning on the battlefields of Gaza but losing the long game against Hamas.
This is because Hamas has mastered the art of asymmetrical warfare against Israel. And groups that use unconventional tactics and strategies – such as hijackings, suicide bombings, and deliberate attacks on civilians – against a much larger force also have a quite different concept of victory. To fulfil its genocidal intentions, Hamas does not need to win on the battlefield anytime soon, it need only survive to fight another day.
As such, the only way to prevent another October 7 massacre from occurring is for Israel to beat Hamas so decisively that the Gaza-based terrorists would be convinced that they can never defeat Israel – no matter how long they try.
To do so, Israel will have to engage in some asymmetrical warfare of its own. Since its founding, the country has compiled an extensive list of worldwide assassinations, including Nazi-affiliated scientists, Palestinian terrorists, and key figures in Iran’s nuclear program.
The targeted assassinations escalated dramatically following the 1972 Munich Massacre when 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were murdered at the Summer Olympics. Operation Wrath of God was authorized by Prime Minister Golda Meir and conducted by the Mossad. The goal was to track down and assassinate the individuals responsible for the massacre, as well as other Palestinian terrorists involved in the ongoing conflict with Israel.
As a result, at least eleven members of Black September and the PLO were located and killed for their involvement in the planning and execution of the terror attack.
Operation Wrath of God’s success inspired other nations and intelligence agencies to conduct their own targeted assassinations in the global fight against terrorism.
To create a psychology of total defeat among Gaza’s terrorists and their supporters, Israel must focus its time and energy on taking out Hamas’s top leaders – many of whom are residing comfortably in Qatar, Turkey, and Lebanon. In Gaza, Hamas fighters as well as many other residents of the Strip view the likes of Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Mashal, Saleh al-Aaruri, and Osama Hamdan as rock stars, symbols of the struggle to establish an Islamic state in place of Israel.
Israel’s rogues gallery of detractors will recoil at such an expansion of the war beyond Gaza’s borders. While they are entitled to their outrage, they may want to consider that had Washington reacted proportionally to the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States would have limited its response to sinking a couple of Japanese battleships. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were brutal, but they also freed millions of people from a vicious Japanese occupation.
For the right cause, such as a country’s survival, engaging in unconventional warfare is not just an option but an obligation.
Excellent discussion, Gidon Ben-Zvi. I find myself agreeing with you all the way through.
But still, in the first instance, I think it’s been necessary to do what the IDF have done with going into Gaza on the ground after necessary bombing to clear the way. It was always going to be chaotic and difficult due to the guerrila-style warfare of Hamas and their use of civilians, but had to be done. Now is the time, perhaps, for some of that unconventional warfare you speak of.