The Lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan Don’t Apply in Gaza

July 15 2024

In an article in a recent issue of the journal Foreign Affairs, the retired American general David Petraeus contends that Israel’s current strategy in Gaza is wrongheaded. Instead, he argues, the IDF should adopt the counterinsurgency strategies (COIN in military jargon) that he employed so effectively to suppress the Iraqi insurgency between 2007 and 2010. Will Selber and Bill Roggio disagree:

There are numerous problems with this argument, chief among them that the IDF is not fighting an insurgency. Instead, it’s fighting a terror state. Hamas is the state. [Its members] are not insurgents. While Hamas may employ guerrilla-warfare tactics, so did the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The IDF would be fighting an insurgency if Hamas were trying to topple a government in Gaza. But that’s not what’s going on here. Yes, Hamas is a terrorist organization. However, they do not solely operate clandestinely because they are the de-facto state in Gaza. They field a terror army consisting of over twenty light infantry battalions.

Moreover, crucial to counterinsurgency is building trust with friendly locals, trust that is strengthened by fighting side by side:

Which group inside of Gaza could partner with the IDF like this and still survive? . . . The Palestinian Authority is still incapable of securing the West Bank. How would they secure Gaza working shoulder-by-shoulder with the IDF? [But] let’s play along, pretending that somehow the IDF could find a partner force. How long would it take to clear, hold, and build? A year? Maybe two? Wouldn’t the international community claim that Israel is occupying Gaza? Even Petraeus admits that this would require an Israeli occupation of Gaza.

While the IDF has yet to achieve its war aims and the overall success of its operation in Gaza remains in doubt, following in America’s footsteps in both Iraq and Afghanistan would be a cataclysmic mistake. We lost both wars. Israel cannot afford to lose this one.

Read more at Bulwark

More about: Afghanistan, Gaza War 2023, IDF, Iraq, Iraq war

The Mass Expulsion of Palestinians Is No Solution. Neither Are Any of the Usual Plans for Gaza

Examining the Trump administration’s proposals for the people of Gaza, Danielle Pletka writes:

I do not believe that the forced cleansing of Gaza—a repetition of what every Arab country did to the hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews in 1948— is a “solution.” I don’t think Donald Trump views that as a permanent solution either (read his statement), though I could be wrong. My take is that he believes Gaza must be rebuilt under new management, with only those who wish to live there resettling the land.

The time has long since come for us to recognize that the establishment doesn’t have the faintest clue what to do about Gaza. Egypt doesn’t want it. Jordan doesn’t want it. Iran wants it, but only as cannon fodder. The UN wants it, but only to further its anti-Semitic agenda and continue milking cash from the West. Jordanians, Lebanese, and Syrians blame Palestinians for destroying their countries.

Negotiations with Hamas have not worked. Efforts to subsume Gaza under the Palestinian Authority have not worked. Rebuilding has not worked. Destruction will not work. A “two-state solution” has not arrived, and will not work.

So what’s to be done? If you live in Washington, New York, London, Paris, or Berlin, your view is that the same answers should definitely be tried again, but this time we mean it. This time will be different. . . . What could possibly make you believe this other than ideological laziness?

Read more at What the Hell Is Going On?

More about: Donald Trump, Gaza Strip, Palestinians