Is Israel making the right move? Their forces have been hell on wheels against Hamas’ forces—they can’t stop the IDF. They’ve split the Gaza Strip in two, slowly degrading the terror groups’ imprint in the region. Hamas is going to be eradicated from the face of the Earth. It’s not a question of if but when at this point. Israeli troops have begun flooding the terror tunnels; they’re knocking off Hamas’ top leadership throughout the region. Whether they be in Gaza City or Beirut, Israel will kill these people after they launched a genocidal terror attack on October 7.
Throw an anvil when your opponent is drowning, not a life vest. Instead, Israel is withdrawing some 7,000 troops. The reasons aren’t unordinary since wars are expensive. The mass deployment has been a strain on the Israeli economy, but the underlying concern is that the Biden administration has pushed for a reduced footprint in Gaza. They want a more targeted war, utilizing special forces groups to wipe out Hamas terrorists (via NYT):
The Israeli military said on Monday that it would begin withdrawing several thousand troops from the Gaza Strip at least temporarily, in what was the most significant publicly announced reduction since the war with Hamas began.
The military cited a growing toll on the Israeli economy after nearly three months of wartime mobilization with little end in sight to the fighting. Israel had been considering scaling back its operations, and the United States has been prodding it to do so more quickly as the death toll and privation in Gaza rose.
More than 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war, most of them civilians, according to the local health authorities, primarily in Israeli bombing. With aid delivery restricted and aid workers unable to move safely within the territory, half of Gaza’s roughly 2.2 million people are at risk of starvation, according to the United Nations.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, emphasized that the move to demobilize some soldiers did not suggest any compromise of Israel’s intention to continue fighting until it destroys Hamas, and the fighting across Gaza remained intense. Admiral Hagari, who had said he expected “warfare throughout this year,” indicated that some troops would be called back to service in 2024.
He did not mention the American requests to scale back, and Israeli officials have not declared any shift toward a more limited, targeted phase of the war in Gaza, though they have said such a transition would come.
But military analysts and U.S. officials say the troop withdrawal probably signals that such a change has begun, though they caution that the war is nowhere near over.
[…]
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is expected to return to Israel in early January for further talks on the war, according to U.S. officials. Last week, President Biden pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a tense conversation to take a more surgical approach to the war, using special forces to attack the leaders and infrastructure of Hamas, the militant group that has controlled Gaza.
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John Hannah, the Randi & Charles Wax Senior Fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy, agreed regarding the strain on the Israeli economy concerning the mass mobilization of reservists, adding that there's also "sheer fatigue and wear and tear on the troops. Units in Gaza have been engaged in some of the toughest combat operations of the 21st century. They need a break. Soldiers are exhausted and their units need to be replenished and restored to full strength."
Still, whatever Biden pushes should be viewed with skepticism and concern, given that he’s a public official who has been wrong about foreign policy for 40 years. Joe Biden isn’t to be trusted with anyone’s security. Yet, as the piece noted toward the end, there is an argument to be made that since Hamas can’t stop the IDF, and with significant numbers of their forces wiped out by Israeli assaults, this is the start of the low-intensity phase. It’s going to be the longest phase of the war, which is why everyone observing is warning the public that this conflict is nowhere near close to being finished. And we still have the Lebanon front that could open up.
To Hannah, this redeployment shows "the Israelis fully understand that the Biden administration, whose support they obviously want to retain, is eager for Israel to begin the shift to a smaller footprint, more targeted form of military operations."
He added, "This kind of announcement by the Israelis is a sign that they understand the kinds of pressures that President Biden is under, both from his own Party and internationally, and they’re trying to address his concerns in a serious way." In short, it's to keep the fire going on this long game, providing Biden with some relief at home to ensure continued American support for the mutual goal of destroying Hamas.
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