Bibi's war cabinet is surprisingly united
Fierce guerilla warfare with four to twenty casualties a day. That was American military advisors’ cold-blooded forecast for an IDF ground offensive in Gaza based on their own experience fighting ISIS in Mosul. Sadly, the forecast has hitherto proven accurate, though at the lower end of the range.
The painful price was clear from the start, even to the war cabinet. The IAF has never received the green light to pound Gaza from the air so hard, which makes Mosul (recaptured from ISIS by the Iraqi government in 2017 with massive support from coalition air forces) the most relevant comparison.
During the Second Lebanon War, the government gradually lost its domestic legitimacy to shed its soldiers’ blood. In the Gaza war, Israel headed into the ground offensive with 1,400 dead, and any painful price will only inflate that tally to unheard-of dimensions. And for all that, the ground forces will roll forward, because this time, after the horrific massacre of Simchas Torah, there is no other option.
Unsurprisingly, Gantz, Eizenkot, and Netanyahu have maintained an excellent working relationship, based on a shared view of the goals of the operation as well as the military tactics to be used in attaining them.
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