French diplomat Gerard Araud said that the Gaza war, which Israel launched in response to the attacks of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on October 7, 2023, is the longest war in Israel’s history and the bloodiest for Palestinian civilians, and here, despite entering the seventh month, it has not achieved any of its goals. Its basic goals, and threatens the very existence of the State of Israel.

The former ambassador to Tel Aviv explained - in his book "Israel. The Trap of History" - which was reviewed by Le Monde newspaper, that the Israeli army did not achieve any of its basic goals, neither releasing the hostages, nor destroying Hamas militarily, nor eliminating its leaders, nor ensuring the security of the southern border. Or northern.

Gerard Araud concluded that “October 7 is the greatest strategic defeat in Israel’s history,” explaining that this attack “broke the doctrine of Israel’s invincibility, and we do not see how it can regain its credibility, because the foundation of its security is what has collapsed, and thus It has lost its ability to deter and protect the integrity of the lands on which it stands.

Mark Simo explained - in his presentation of the book - that this observation is amazing, especially since it was presented by one of the best experts on this subject, and he spent his career in the French Foreign Ministry, and the Tel Aviv embassy was his first mission as a young diplomat, then he returned there as ambassador in 2003, when President Jacques Chirac considered it necessary to improve bilateral relations with Israel.

The newspaper pointed out that Gerard Araud, at the height of France's "Arab policy", was one of the few who tried to deeply understand what the Israelis felt and what they wanted, but at the same time he claims in his book that "this understanding does not mean, and should not mean, sympathy." ", accompanied by - according to his claim - "the analyst's coldness."

The necessity of a lasting political solution

Arrow believes that Israel is a complex and dynamic society as much as it is explosive, but it is also extremely cruel. He also talks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its violence, its dilemmas, and its many missed dates with peace, focusing in particular on the violence of settlers in the West Bank and the silence of Westerners, and on the contradiction in the Zionist project represented by Creating a state that is Jewish and democratic at the same time.

The newspaper concluded that the challenges facing Israel today are among the most dangerous in its history, although Arrow hopes that, despite the double shock to which the Israeli and Palestinian sides were exposed as a result of the current conflict, awareness of the urgent need to reach a lasting political solution will take precedence over the desire for revenge.

Source: Le Monde + Aljazeera