Netanyahu's unclear occupation strategy risks leaving Israel trapped in Gaza, former NSC head says
Confusion stemming from the government's lack of a coherent military strategy forthe Gaza Strip is undermining Israel's position and endangering the hostages, former head of the National Security Council (NSC), Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland told 103FM on Sunday.
Eiland, who served as head of the NSC during the 2005 disengagement from Gaza, said the cabinet's latest decision on the territory was unprecedented in its ambiguity.
'This is the first time, not only during this war, that a decision has been made, and I don't know what it is, so I don't have a complete opinion about it,' he said. 'Unlike all previous matters, this is something that, in my opinion, even those who made the decision have no idea what they actually decided. It truly reflects the great confusion that Israel is in.'
He noted that before the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu had spoken of a full occupation of Gaza aimed at 'absolute victory.' However, he said, Netanyahu later retreated under pressure from the IDF and other ministers, leaving Israel 'in a very strange situation where it's not clear what the decision is.' He also criticized Netanyahu's recent comments in English about besieging Gaza City, calling them disconnected from operational reality. 'I doubt anyone in the IDF General Staff would be able to turn them into any kind of coherent plan – good or bad,' he said.
According to Eiland, mediators are working on a new deal to end the war in exchange for the return of all hostages. 'I hope the mediators are doing this after receiving some kind of green light from Israel,' he said. 'In the current situation, this is the most reasonable way out for Israel from the deadlock we are in.'
Assessing the chances of such a deal, Eiland was blunt. 'It was already small six months ago,' he said. 'We wasted half a year, not only in terms of another six months of miserable people in Gaza's tunnels and other costs, but also in January–February when Trump stormed into the White House and made various threats, such as that the Gazans' fate would be in Jordan or Egypt. That put the Arab states under pressure. There was a huge opportunity for Israel – not only to go for a different deal that would end the war, but also to do so from a position of strength. Netanyahu, as usual, didn't want to. So now he might end up accepting what he absolutely refused to even consider before.'
Eiland: Israel should have implemented "General's Plan" earlier on in Gaza war
Eiland contrasted the government's approach with his own 'generals' plan,' which he said was ignored. At the start of the war, he argued, the cabinet adopted three flawed assumptions: that only military pressure would bring back the hostages and ensure victory; that victory could be achieved through high-intensity fighting; and that the population could be separated from Hamas. 'All three of these assumptions were wrong from the beginning,' he said.
By late November 2023, Eiland noted, Israel had taken control of the Netzarim Corridor, effectively annexing the entire northern Gaza Strip – a third of its territory. He said this was the moment to tell the 300,000 residents there to move south, allow them to leave safely, and then cut off supplies.
The approach, borrowed from the US Pentagon's siege manual, would have minimized both military and civilian casualties by enabling the population to evacuate. 'If that had happened, the northern area would be in our hands, but without a civilian population,' he said.
Instead, Eiland argued, the IDF tried to fight inside a hostile civilian population, a strategy he said has failed. His plan, he added, would then have allowed Israel to tell Hamas: 'If you don't release all the hostages, you will permanently lose a third of the Strip's territory.'
Looking ahead, Eiland said the best outcome would be for Israel to acknowledge that while it has severely damaged Hamas militarily, it has not met all its objectives. 'If Netanyahu had the mental strength to declare: 'Israel is ready to end the war, withdraw all IDF forces, and we have no further conditions except one – the immediate return of the hostages,' and Hamas accepted – great, we'd end the war,' he said. 'If Hamas said no, then at least we could tell the international community: What do you want from us – to accept the loss of the hostages in Gaza?'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wall Street Journal
an hour ago
- Wall Street Journal
Ukraine's Once Nimble Army Is Mired in Soviet Decision-Making
SUMY, Ukraine — In the first year of Russia's all-out invasion, Ukraine's defenders repeatedly outmaneuvered a lumbering Russian army, relying on improvisation and the judgment of men in the field. Three years on, Ukraine's military has slipped back into a more rigid, top-down mode of fighting with roots in the Soviet era, creating mounting frustration about unnecessary casualties while hurting civilian morale and army recruitment. Without overhauls, the Soviet-style habits could undermine Ukraine's ability to sustain its defense against Russia, which shows no sign of relenting in its quest to conquer the country.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Anas Al-Sharif became the face of the war in Gaza for millions. Then Israel killed him
As a ceasefire in Gaza took hold in January, Anas Al-Sharif began removing his protective gear live on television, piece by piece, while a jubilant crowd cheered, hoping the day marked the end of the suffering of 2 million Palestinians in the enclave. Nearly seven months later, Israel killed the Al Jazeera journalist and four of his colleagues in a strike in Gaza City. One of the most well-known Palestinian journalists in Gaza – and one of dozens to be killed by Israel during the war – Al-Sharif's death has ignited international condemnation and calls for accountability. The 28-year-old rose to prominence as the face of the Gaza story for millions while Israel has blocked international media outlets from accessing the territory. Little known before the war, he quickly turned into a household name in the Arab world for his daily coverage of the conflict and its humanitarian toll. His reports provided first-hand accounts of critical moments in the conflict, including the short-lived ceasefires in the territory, the release of Israeli hostages and harrowing stories of the starvation that have shocked the world. Al Jazeera recruited Al-Sharif in December 2023 after his social media footage of Israeli strikes in his hometown of Jabalya went viral. Then a professional cameraman, he was initially reluctant to appear on air but was persuaded by colleagues to front his reports, an experience he called 'indescribable.' 'I had never even appeared on a local channel let alone an international one,' he was cited as saying in the Sotour media outlet in February. 'The person who was happiest was my late father.' His father was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Jabalya shortly after Al-Sharif began appearing on Al Jazeera. A father of two, he appeared on the channel nearly every day since he started his job. 'We (journalists) slept in hospitals, in streets, in vehicles, in ambulances, in displacement shelters, in warehouses, with displaced people. I slept in 30 to 40 different places,' he told the outlet. After he took off his protective gear on air in January, crowds lifted him on their shoulders in celebration. 'I am taking off the helmet that tired me, and this armor that has become an extension of my body,' he said live on Al Jazeera at the time as he paid tribute to colleagues killed and injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza. Al-Sharif's reports attracted the attention of the Israeli military, which, he claimed, warned him to stop his work for Al Jazeera, a network that had already lost several staff members to Israeli actions in Gaza, including Ismail Al Ghoul, killed last year, and Hossam Shabat, killed in March. 'At the end, (the Israeli military) sent me voice notes on my WhatsApp number… an intelligence officer told me… 'you have minutes to leave the location you are in, go to the south, and stop reporting for Al Jazeera'… I was reporting from a hospital live.' 'Minutes later, the room I was reporting from was struck,' he said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) didn't respond to CNN's request for comment. Why now? Israel first accused Al-Sharif of being linked to Hamas 10 months ago. Why it decided to target him now is unclear. In a statement confirming his targeted killing, the IDF accused Al-Sharif of leading a Hamas cell in Gaza that orchestrated 'rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF forces.' In October 2024, the Israeli military published documents it claimed showed 'unequivocal proof' of Al-Sharif's ties to Hamas and named five other Al Jazeera journalists who it said were part of the militant group. An Israeli army spokesperson said in a video on X that Al-Sharif joined a Hamas battalion in 2013, and was injured in training in 2017, CNN has not been able to independently confirm the IDF's claims. Al-Sharif denied the accusations, and Irene Khan, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, also rejected them. 'I reaffirm: I, Anas Al-Sharif, am a journalist with no political affiliations. My only mission is to report the truth from the ground – as it is, without bias,' he wrote last month. 'At a time when a deadly famine is ravaging Gaza, speaking the truth has become, in the eyes of the occupation, a threat.' Following the killing, the IDF's Arabic spokesperson published several pictures of Al-Sharif with Yahya Sinwar, the late Hamas leader who is believed to have masterminded the October 7, 2023 attack that left around 1,200 people in Israel dead and roughly 250 more taken hostage. Israel killed Sinwar in October 2024. CNN has established that, before the war in Gaza, Al-Sharif worked for a Hamas media team in the strip. In an audio recording from several months ago, Al-Sharif could be heard criticizing the stance adopted by the Hamas negotiating team. When he was killed on Sunday, Al-Sharif was in a tent with other journalists near the entrance to the Al-Shifa Hospital, according to hospital director Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya. The tent was marked with a 'Press' sign, Abu Salmiya told CNN. The strike killed at least seven people, he added. Al Jazeera said correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and photojournalists Ibrahim Al Thaher and Moamen Aliwa were also killed in the strike, as well as Mohammed Noufal, another staff member. 'Pattern of accusing journalists' Al-Sharif's killing prompted condemnations from rights groups and officials. The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was 'appalled,' adding that Israel has 'a longstanding, documented pattern of accusing journalists of being terrorists without providing any credible proof.' The CPJ said 192 journalists have been killed since the beginning of the war nearly two years ago, adding: '184 of those journalists are Palestinians killed by Israel.' Since the start of the war, Israel has not allowed international journalists to enter Gaza to report independently. Just hours before the strike that killed Al-Sharif and his colleagues, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said foreign journalists would now be allowed into Gaza, but only with Israeli military approval and accompanied by them, the same embed policy that has been in place since the beginning of the war. Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, is one of the few global news outlets broadcasting live from Gaza during the conflict, unlike others that primarily rely on local freelance journalists. As one of the most watched channels in the Arab world, its continuous coverage of Gaza has drawn a significant viewership among Palestinians and Arabic-speaking audiences. The network's YouTube channel has more than 21 million subscribers and nearly 16 billion views, with a live stream that attracts millions of viewers Al-Sharif gained prominence in the network as many of its well-known journalists in Gaza were killed or injured by Israeli strikes. Wael Al Dahdouh, the former Gaza bureau chief, was evacuated to Qatar after sustaining injuries and having most of his family killed. Al-Sharif then emerged as a roving reporter across Gaza, providing Al Jazeera with live updates from the north of the enclave. He also regularly posted videos on his Telegram channel highlighting the toll of the war on Palestinians. Last year, Israel banned the Al Jazeera from operating in the country under a sweeping new wartime law that allows the Israeli government to ban foreign media organizations it deems 'harmful' to the nation's security. Al-Sharif was buried in Gaza on Monday in a funeral that attracted large crowds of Palestinian mourners. Anticipating his own death, Al-Sharif had written a will that was released by his colleagues after he was killed. 'I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification… If I die, I die steadfast upon my principles,' he wrote. 'Do not forget Gaza … and do not forget me in your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance.'
Politico
3 hours ago
- Politico
What William Bennett is doing for Qatar
With help from Daniel Lippman REPRESENTING QATAR: Former Education Secretary William Bennett registered as a foreign agent last month to provide the Qatari government with backup against accusations that it has funded antisemitic activity on college campuses. A filing with the Justice Department on Monday offers a glimpse at what exactly Bennett is doing for the Gulf nation. — 'I accepted this role so I could apply my experience and independent judgment to a growing body of accusations against Qatar,' the Reagan-era education chief wrote in a recent letter to current Education Secretary Linda McMahon, according to a copy filed with DOJ on Monday. The Qatari Embassy is paying Bennett a $30,000 monthly retainer for his work, DOJ filings show. — Foreign funding in U.S. academia — of which Qatar is a top provider — has become a major focus of congressional Republicans probing anti-Israel protests at colleges. It was the subject of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in April. — Bennett refuted the notion that Qatar has sought to exert 'malign influence' or sought to foster antisemitism on campuses. Many of the gifts attributed to Qatar in federal disclosure databases are tied to satellite campuses in Doha operated by more than half a dozen U.S. colleges — a model that 'should be recognized as a constructive extension of American educational leadership,' he wrote. — Moreover, Bennett claimed his review found that some of the worst allegations about Qatari influence on campuses were the result of a 'coordinated campaign of distortion led primarily by third-party advocacy groups' such as the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, 'whose motivations and funding sources deserve far more scrutiny than they have received.' — The think tank, which has previously received funding from the Israeli government, has been one of the top critics of Qatar's gifts to universities, with its leaders and research featured in numerous congressional hearings on the matter. — Bennett lauded McMahon's push for greater transparency into foreign influence in academia, repeatedly pointing to his own registration as a foreign agent as proof. But 'if the Department is to evaluate the influence of foreign funding in higher education,' he wrote, 'it should do so comprehensively and impartially, including examining the foreign ties, funding sources, and lobbying activities of those making the loudest accusations.' — 'Contrary to the false assertions by Mr. Bennett, ISGAP is an independent non-partisan high calibre research Centre,' Charles Asher Small, ISGAP's executive director, told PI in an email. 'Unlike Mr [Bennett], ISGAP does not work with, or for, foreign entities, like the Qatari Regime his client.' Small said that the group had received a $123,000 grant from the Israeli government in 2019 'for a university based academic programme,' but that it was the 'only occasion in ISGAPs history that we received a grant from a government.' — 'Mr. Bennett quotes false reports designed to dismiss our fact based research that points to the dangers of unreported foreign funding of American higher education by entities, like the undemocratic Qatari regime with … close relations to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and to other terror entities.' Happy Tuesday and welcome to PI. Keep sending influence tips and scoops from whichever waterside locale you're spending recess in. Add me on Signal at caitlinoprysko.17 and email me at coprysko@ and you can add Daniel on Signal at danielbarnes.13 and email Daniel at dbarnes@ And follow us on X: @caitlinoprysko and @dnlbrns. AFGE'S ADVOCACY SHOP GETS AN OVERHAUL: The largest union representing federal employees is retooling its advocacy operations amid the Trump administration's moves to slash and dramatically reshape the federal workforce. — The American Federation of Government Employees announced today that it's bringing together staffers working on political, grassroots, education, community relations and comms for the union under the umbrella of a newly formed 'Advocacy Department.' — Andrew Huddleston, who has led AFGE's comms team for the past seven years, will lead the new advocacy unit. Brittany Holder will move up to communications director, and AFGE's political and field staff will be led by an as-yet-unnamed director. — AFGE's lobbying arm will remain separate from the advocacy department. But the union tapped Daniel Horowitz, who's been heading up AFGE's Hill outreach on an interim basis since January, to fill the role permanently. — 'The idea is for AFGE to be ready to act fast when events break, while also pursuing our long-term goals: winning for our members, protecting the integrity of our government, building stronger partnerships with allies, and making AFGE more powerful and influential for decades to come,' Huddleston told PI of the reorg. — AFGE has been on the front lines of the Trump administration's war with the federal workforce as Elon Musk's DOGE cost-cutting initiative moved to shutter entire agencies, steamroll career employees and obtain access to sensitive government data. The administration has also taken aim at federal workers' rights to unionize altogether and last week moved to cancel collective bargaining agreements for EPA employees. — But the administration attacks on the federal bureaucracy have already hit the union hard, and AFGE announced in April that it would lay off more than half of its own workforce. CREDIT UNIONS TAP NUSSLE'S SUCCESSOR: America's Credit Unions has picked Scott Simpson as the next president and chief executive of the trade group. Simpson will take over in November from former Rep. Jim Nussle, who announced his retirement in April. Simpson is currently president and CEO of the California Credit Union League and Nevada's Credit Unions in addition to serving as CEO of Utah's Credit Union Association. — At America's Credit Unions, which formed last year as the result of a merger between the two leading trade groups for credit unions, the Credit Union National Association and the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions, Simpson has served on the group's legislative action council and led its national advocacy fund. BLUESKY LOBBIES UP: Bluesky Social, the upstart microblogging platform angling to dethrone Musk's X, has hired its first federal lobbyists. The Vogel Group began working last month to provide 'general awareness and education building about decentralized platforms' like Bluesky, according to a newly filed disclosure. Republican lobbyist and firm founder Alex Vogel is working on the account along with Ali Khimji, Gabby Smith and Isabelle Drayer. — Bluesky was started in 2019 as a research project by Twitter architect and then-CEO Jack Dorsey to explore decentralization, which allows users to store their data on independent servers rather than ones owned by the company. Bluesky launched its social media app years later after spinning off from Twitter before Musk's takeover. — It has shown more staying power than some of the other social networks competing to replace Dorsey's old site, and saw another surge of new users following Trump's election last year. But X remains dominant over Bluesky Social and Meta Platforms' copycat site Threads, TechCrunch reported last month. ANNALS OF DARK MONEY: New DNC Chair Ken Martin 'is taking a symbolic step toward curbing the influence of undisclosed and corporate funds in his party's 2028 presidential primary,' The New York Times' Reid Epstein reports, 'a move that is likely to instigate a broader conversation about the role of big money in Democratic politics.' — Martin's plans include tasking a new reform committee with coming up with 'real, enforceable steps the D.N.C. can take to eliminate unlimited corporate and dark money in its 2028 presidential primary process' by next summer. — 'The move is the first significant maneuver from Mr. Martin to shape the party's next presidential nominating process,' the Times writes. But 'how much bite the effort has will be determined in large part by the enforcement mechanism the party seeks to implement,' especially as some Democrats have called for going toe to toe against the GOP in other political arenas like redistricting. SPOTTED on Saturday at the Edgartown home of April Miller Boise and David Willbrand for a fundraiser benefiting the DSCC and Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), per a tipster: Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, co-hosts Paul and Sonya Brathwaite of Federal Street Strategies; Art Collins of TheGROUP, Larry Parks of Forethought Advisors, Hasoni Pratts of the National Urban League, former Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice, Dawn Smalls of Jenner & Block, Bert Smyers of New Heights Research, Robyn Minter Smyers of Thompson Hine and Crystal Wagar of The Southern Group and TSG Advocates; Mo Cowan of Devoted Health, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Veronica Duron of Booker's office, Joy Russell of Alsobrooks' office, Will Washington of Blunt Rochester's office and Meredith Lilly of Warnock's office. Jobs report — Elliott Echols is now senior vice president at Frontline Government Relations. He previously was national political director at the RNC. — Stephanie Waties is returning to APCO as a senior director in D.C. She was previously a senior vice president at LSG and previously spent almost eight years at APCO. — Tatiana Rice is being elevated to the senior director role for the Future of Privacy Forum's U.S. legislation team, per Morning Tech. She was previously the team's director, and has been at the company for nearly four years. — Todd Breasseale is now chief communications and brand officer at Brighton Marine, Inc. He's a former Biden DoD and Obama DHS spokesperson. — The Plastics Industry Association has added Hodayah Finman as senior director of regulatory affairs and Ivy Brittain as regional director of state government affairs. Finman was previously the acting director of EPA's Office of International Affairs and Brittain most recently served as legislative affairs director for the Northern California Water Association. — Mollie Timmons is now a senior adviser for public affairs at NTIA. She previously was communications manager at the American Petroleum Institute and is a Morgan Griffith and Rob Portman alum. New Joint Fundraisers None. New PACs The 218 Project (Super PAC) Fight4Michigan (Super PAC) Golden State Voices United (Super PAC) Government That Works PAC (Hybrid PAC) Hispanic Next Generation PAC (Hybrid PAC) VOLUNTEER OHIO TO ELECT REPUBLICANS (Hybrid PAC) New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS C6 Strategies, LLC (Fka Ms. Dana W. Hudson): Distributed Spectrum Capitol Counsel LLC: Levin Management Corporation Capitol Hill Policy Group LLC: Odawi Law Pllc Obo National Haskell Board Of Regents Cfm Strategic Communications (Conkling Fiskum & Mccormick): Detroit Lake Foundation Dla Piper LLP (US): Ira Watchdog The Artemis Group, LLC (Oklahoma): Dawn Aerospace Thorn Run Partners: Ava Labs, Inc. Thorn Run Partners: Avalanche Bvi, Inc. Thorn Run Partners: Ledger Sas Thorn Run Partners: Makpar Corporation Thorn Run Partners: Metrika, Inc. Thorn Run Partners: Wisdomtree Digital Management New Lobbying Terminations Foley Federal & International Affairs, Inc.: National Federation Of Croatian Americans Saunders Global Diplomacy: Desert Mountain Energy Schools That Can: Schools That Can Thomas Marquez: Turbovets
