View from Israel: From ‘total Victory’ to strategic Failure – cease-fire leaves Israel weaker and Iran stronger

Explosion during Iranian missile strikes on central Tel Aviv
Photo: Global Press

What began with sweeping promises of regime change and the destruction of Iran's nuclear capabilities ends in a fragile cease-fire, mounting losses, and a profound erosion of Israel's strategic position, ‘Haaretz’ stresses.

U.S. President Donald Trump's infantile tweets, only a few hours after he had promised a "whole civilization will die," is a sign that it's all over. The temporary cease-fire will become a permanent one. Trump is already talking about "big money," a golden age and world peace. The overgrown child has lost his patience and interest, moving on to his next toy (Greenland? Cuba?). A person with a record of bankruptcies has chosen to cut his political and financial losses, explaining that "Iran can start the reconstruction process." And what about reconstructing Israel?

The big winner is the Revolutionary Guards

It was and remains a disastrous war that was dishonest in its aims. Two reckless psychopaths have drowned the region in blood, fire and smoke, plunging the world into a global energy crisis. Crazy Trump thought, or was led to believe, that it would take three days. At the end of 40 nightmarish days and sleepless nights, it's obvious that none of the declared and megalomaniac objectives of the war have been achieved. Not the nuclear program's destruction, the end of the ballistic missile threat or regime change.

The big winner is the Revolutionary Guards, which has taken control of Iran, replacing the ayatollahs. It will now follow an even tougher line against the West and obviously against the poor Iranian people, with the pathos-filled concern for their welfare being replaced with "blasting Iran into oblivion," "damage to infrastructure," and "creating conditions" for a future regime change.

Now, the prevailing witticism is that the war ended with the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war. But this too is inaccurate. Trump has granted an unprecedented recognition to the Revolutionary Guards by acknowledging their right to safeguard passage through the Strait. Iran's status has grown. It withstood a combined assault initiated by "Little Satan" and "Great Satan," overcoming them despite its military and aerial inferiority.

Israel's situation, in contrast, has incalculably worsened. Fatalities, injuries, wrecked buildings, a routine of sirens and bomb shelters, a crumbling economy, an education system on hold, Ben-Gurion Airport shuttered. And for what? Never mind the harsh blow to the north and its brave residents, who were just beginning to pick up the pieces from the previous war, only to discover that Hezbollah had not "evaporated" or been "set back by years" but on the contrary, had been rebuilt.

The wisdom, pragmatism and moderation possessed by the founders of Israel have been replaced in the "Bibi-stan" era by messianic arrogance, lack of strategic planning and an endless fascination with tactical operations (pagers, the assassination of leaders and commanders). The defense strategy embraced by David Ben-Gurion and his followers was based on short wars, transferring the battles to enemy territory and rapid victories translating into diplomatic achievements.

Benjamin Netanyahu is not Ben-Gurion or Winston Churchill

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose mouthpieces dared at the start of the war to compare him to Ben-Gurion and Winston Churchill, has consolidated a different conception: prolonged wars, held over the heads of Israel's home front, neither ending in victory nor contributing to sustainable agreements.

This terrible, failing loser of a man has inflicted on Israel, in less than three years, the worst strategic debacles in its history. The October 7 massacre, the two-year war in Gaza and the north, which ended without vanquishing Hamas and Hezbollah and now, dragging of Trump into a joint war in Iran to the astonishment and revulsion of the world including a vast majority of the American public. The bill and revenge will be presented to Israel and to Jews around the world.

However, the blame cannot fall only on Netanyahu and his government of eunuchs. A large majority of the public in Israel and the country's media outlets and among the so-called opposition, enthusiastically supported the war, believing in its total justification and in the possibility of attaining its delusional objectives.

If Israel manages to break away from the chokehold of the Bibi-ist-Kahanist-Haredi-nationalist-ultra-Orthodox alliance in the coming election, it will need to engage in reeducation and wean itself away from the use of force and ever more force as the only solution to problems.

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