The visit of U.S. President Joe Biden ended successfully. Israel received from its ally, the most powerful world power, everything it wanted and what it could never have imagined, from total backing to military supplies. Now the ball is in Israel's court and it must carry out the mission. What the IDF now wants, is not more armaments. It's more time.
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"For results, patience is needed," military officials said. This war will be prolonged it is not like the former rounds of fighting, which only contributed to the misconceptions held by Israel, that that was what war looks like. Even in the 51 days of fighting in 2014, the IDF only reached three kilometers (less than 2 miles) into the Gaza Strip to remove the attack tunnels from the border.
The plans in progress now are to bring about a fundamental change to the ability of Hamas to rule and its military capabilities. This does not mean that there will be no terrorists there in the future, but they would be so severely hit, that the results would resonate throughout the Middle East and would bring back Israel's deterrence, which was lost on October 7.
"There will be a cost, and problems but this must take place," the officials said. "The Israeli public must be prepared for a prolonged effort. We will enter the Strip when it would be operationally favorable to do so."
This is not a sign of hesitancy. It is to allow the military to prepare. But 350,000 reservists have already been called up and the effects on the economy are dramatic. Israel is in fact under a certain closure and the longer the economic cost, the more the IDF will be called to release some of those called up.
The IDF deployed large numbers of troops to the northern border amid the constant Hezbollah provocations, so as not to be caught off guard and it's not likely that that force would be reduced. The Americans offered their military backing, so that Israel has the time and space to run both fronts, and Hezbollah may be deterred from starting a war under the least advantageous circumstances for the Iran-backed terror group.
One reason for the difference between the expectations of the public and the military actions is that the aerial bombardments are not "more of the same." The IDF said that in the first 11 days of fighting, more targets were struck in Gaza than in the two last armed conflicts with Hezbollah combined. Those strikes now are needed to erode the Hamas infrastructure so that the movement of troops into Gaza would be easier.
In the meantime, forces were demanding the assurance that if civilians were hurt in operational mishaps, they would be protected from legal action taken against them. The prime minister, defense minister and the chief of staff must speak clearly on the matter.
The Shin Bet was quick to organize an efficient system of evaluation and Dissemination, of intelligence gathered from the interrogation of captive terrorists. The terrorists who carried out the heinous atrocities on civilians are revealed to be much less courageous when faced with their interrogators.
British Col. (Res.) Richard Kamp who served in the most violent conflicts on the planet was exposed to the horrific sites and was distraught. I joined his visit to Kfar Aza and saw how the officer who had served in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan was dumbfounded by the death and destruction he saw. He spoke with troops and heard what they and the residents of the border communities had endured, as he spelled the odor of death that still lingered there. "I've never seen such horrors," he said. "You must not stop. You must end it here. You must finish the work."