Weekly Commentary: Reject IDF War of Attrition Plan For Gaza - Choose Fast
Defeat
Dr. Aaron Lerner 26 July 2025

Gili Cohen reported on 25 July on Kan11 that the security establishment has
presented the government with a plan to tighten the encirclement of areas
where Hamas is concentrated with the goal being to "exhaust Hamas and the
population."
www.kan.org.il/content/kan-news/politic/935163/

Honestly, this plan is so reckless that when I heard a broadcast of a
snippet of the report I went to the trouble to track it down in writing to
make sure I heard it correctly.

Here is the score:

#1. Hamas welcomes the starvation and suffering of the Gazan population for
its PR value.

#2. We face growing pressure to bring relief to the civilian population of
Gaza - regardless of either the cause of their situation or the veracity of
reports of their condition.

#3. There is also growing pressure inside Israel to end - one way or the
other - this stage of the conflict with Hamas.

#4. Any truly viable "post-war" arrangement in the Gaza Strip cannot be
implemented before the effective elimination of Hamas since, wishful
thinking notwithstanding from our perennial wishful thinkers, Hamas has no
intention to accept any arrangement in the Gaza Strip which effectively
prevents them from pursuing the goal of the destruction of Israel.

The absolute wrong plan for today is a drawn-out war of attrition.

So much so that I suspect that the security establishment presented the plan
to convince the Government to embrace what the ex-officio talking heads keep
pushing: to give Hamas whatever it wants!

There is a better alternative: defeating Hamas.

Yes. Defeating Hamas means endangering the perhaps 20 hostages who remain
alive.

And I understand those who argue that the lives of the hostages trump all
else.

But that isn't a viable position for a country.

Would the world criticize us for a fast, brutal operation, against the
concentrations of Hamas?

Yes. Just as they criticize us now. And then it would be behind us.

And what of the cost of an occupation?

We already have the technology to supervise an occupation which is, for the
most part, by remote control.

That's all aspects of an occupation. - including security.

And if the staff in the Kirya is so set in its ways that it can't figure
this out, there's more than enough really smart Israelis who can come up
with a winning program literally on the fly.

Yes to victory. No to a war of attrition.

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