HISTORY REPEATS, ISRAEL FACES ITS WORST WAR

After a gap of half a century, Israel faced its worst day on 7th October 23 with deadliest war violence in the history of that country since Yom Kippur war in 1973. The Palestinian extremist organization Hamas launched the most unprecedented attacks by firing thousands of rockets and missiles and hundreds of its fighters crossing over border with Israel to fight on Israeli soil for the first time. After the Yom Kippur War, Israel never faced such a surprise debacle, loss of face and human life ever in the conflicts with PLO and the Arab world.

Israel today is led by a war veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, (Bibi) who had been a member in the Israel’s elite Sayeret Matkal (Special force) and holds the distinction of participating in most important and dangerous of commando raids during his service. He also was a leader of commando team during operation Entebbe, considered to be the most complicated yet successful commando raid in the world till date.

In response to the attack, Bibi declared war against Gaza and said that the reaction of Israel will be most intense. Within hours of crises, Israel cut down the essential supplies to Gaza Strip and was seen imposing a maritime blockade of Palestine. Israel fighter jets and drones are bombarding Hamas day and night while its soldiers are advancing towards Gaza at a rapid pace while this article is being written.

In my opinion as a defence analyst, a severe humanitarian crisis for 2 million inhabitants of Gaza strip has already begun. Should this escalation continue for long, the misery for citizens of Gaza will go beyond imagination as the global sympathy will lean against the aggressor Hamas and no one will hold Tel Aviv responsible for the carnage and deaths.

Though it is still unclear what exactly led to the attacks, but defence experts world over have reasons to believe that this war may be a pressure tactics of powers that be to escalate tensions in middle east and shift focus from war in Europe.

So, the question remains, what went wrong with the invincible supreme prowess of ever strong Israeli eye over Palestinians in Gaza? How come the world best agencies like the Shin Bet, Aman (military intelligence) and Mossad lost their mystique and failed to save their country. I read this story as a sheer complaisance of a superior force that raises questions about the country’s readiness in the face of a weaker but determined foe.

Indeed, there are several take aways of this war but majorly there are three issues which are absolute break down of intelligence, amassing of massive war wherewithal by Hamas and huge loss of human lives in a short period of first 72 hours. Also, in my perception, a few burning questions which haunt the analysts need to be answered at the earliest. Firstly, does an attack of such magnitude which requires months of preparations portrays a real threat to the sovereignty of Israel now? Secondly, while it is known that Qatar extended a financial assistance of over a billion Dollars to Hamas over last few years, who are the countries providing lethal armoury to them and with what intent? Were these rockets, Missiles and armament meant for Ukraine but landed up with Hamas? Thirdly and lastly, what happens to the brokering of a peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel by US which was concentrated towards handing over of certain areas of West Bank to the Palestinian authorities? Will this deal ever see the light of the day after this attack? Or, should this attack be considered as the disregard of Palestinians towards earlier agreements between Israel and Arab world to carve a way of non-compromise unless all their land falls to them.

Whatever be the outcome of this war, the world leaders from America to India and from Europe to many gulf countries have condemned the attack by Hamas and have called for deescalation and concern over loss of human lives. Almost all except a few like Iran and Lebanon stand by the side of Israel. Hezbollah of Lebanon, on the support of Iran, have joined Hamas against Israel.

India must draw its own lessons as it prepares to strengthen its stance against China and Pakistan. Reduction in allocation of defence budget and delay in procurement of war machine as force multipliers may adversely affect our defence readiness and compromise our projections as a regional power.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Col Anupam Jaitly (R) The writer is defence expert, motivational speaker and corporate trainer