What does the “war against Gaza” look like through the eyes of prominent Israelis?

The Hebrew press is full, almost daily, of articles and analyzes by leading Israeli journalists, political and military researchers on the occasion of the half-year anniversary of the October 7 attack. In this context, and regarding the results of the aftermath of the “Al-Aqsa Flood,” we select - from this “flood” of writings - conclusions drawn by prominent Israelis. We begin with the Israeli writer (Ben Caspit), one of the most important analysts for the “Maariv” newspaper, where he wrote: “Israel is a train that derailed. A carriage that was freed from the locomotive. A carriage without a driver... Serious media networks in the world reported that the last conversation between US President Joe Biden “It was dramatic, and Biden made Netanyahu understand that he was not a step away from victory, but rather a step away from the final destruction of the alliance between America and Israel.”
For his part, the chief analyst for Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper (Nahum Barnea) believes: “In the six months of the Gaza war, we did not achieve any of the goals that we put forward at the beginning. Neither the ambitious, imaginative goals presented by Netanyahu, nor the more realistic goals presented by the army leadership. We did not crush Hamas, we did not overthrow its rule, we did not stop the fire around Gaza and in the Galilee, and we did not return the prisoners and those evacuated from their homes.”
In this context, the Israeli analyst (Shimon Schaefer) wrote under the title: “Get out of Gaza immediately”: “Half a year has passed since the avalanche to which we were exposed, and reality does not provide us with many reasons for consolation. Since then, our enemies, near and far, have also joined the efforts.” aiming to defeat us. The provisional summary of the war on Gaza leads us, in my humble opinion, to one conclusion: Get out of Gaza immediately, and make every effort to return the prisoners. no choice. Yahya Sinwar is delaying us from everything, and he will not give up or surrender.”
For his part, Israeli writer Alon Mizrahi believes that “history will judge the last six months as one of the most brilliant and astonishing (Palestinian) military achievements in all of military history, which is unimaginable. No one thought they could pull this off, but they did and changed history forever. Palestine will never return to the shadows again. Hamas, the small Palestinian movement, not only defeated Israel, it defeated the entire West.”

As for the former military official (Yitzhak Brik), he wrote in conclusion: “Half a year after the war, Netanyahu, Gallant, and Halevy lost absolute control of the situation. These (leaders) are the cause of the greatest disaster that has happened to us since the Holocaust, and since the founding years of the state, and they are now leading us to a disaster hundreds of times greater than the one that occurred in the Gaza Strip.” In the title of his article in “Maariv 04/07/2024,” political analyst Ben Kisibet summarized his point of view when he wrote, “After half a year, members of the gang responsible for the greatest failure in our history are still in their positions.” As for the military analyst, Amos Harel, he wrote in Haaretz, April 5, 2024, “Israel today is at one of the worst points it has gone through: it is stuck in a war that it has not yet succeeded in resolving, and it faces all the deep social rifts and polarizations that hide behind the dust of battles.”
For his part, the bold and famous writer Gideon Levy summed up the whole issue in his summary of the conclusions when he wrote: “No one in Israel has any idea how the end of one of the most horrific wars in our history will be, the damage of which is accumulating at an astonishing speed, while its achievements are equivalent to zero, and in fact it is.” It does not exist. Therefore, we must muster our courage and say on the half-year anniversary of the war: It would have been better if it had not broken out... and no advanced, precise electron microscope delving into the ruins of Gaza will be able to find a single achievement that Israel achieved in the war. With the naked eye, mountains of unprecedented rubble can be seen.”