Killing Sinwar won't stop the ticking bomb in Gaza

YAHYA SINWAR waves to Palestinians last April at a rally marking the annual al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) in Gaza.

So what is happening in Gaza? It depends who you ask.

In general, you shouldn’t ask politicians and generals. In addition to the larger war, they also need to take into account the interests of the systems they work for, namely the IDF and the government.

So who is left? Us. Alone. Each and every one of us is expected to answer for themselves the question of what is happening in Gaza.

After all, we have all the facts and numbers in front of us. The answer lies not in the results of the battles and the political maneuvering, but in private: What does each of us want from this war and what are they willing to sacrifice for it?

Israel’s unity shattered as the Hamas war drags on

The majority of people, as I understand it, are not willing to ask themselves what to think or what to want.

The majority decides to believe in one side or another, or in one person or another, and here we are stuck with half the population against the other half because despite the “unity,” the public can’t see eye to eye with each other.

Relatives and supporters of hostages take part in a protest calling for their release, in Tel Aviv (credit: REUTERS/SUSANA VERA)

Relatives and supporters of hostages take part in a protest calling for their release, in Tel Aviv (credit: REUTERS/SUSANA VERA)

The general “unity” that was forged after the war began has once again divided on basic ideological lines.

The first round of the fighting left a swathe of destruction and temporarily satisfied the demand for revenge that burned within all of us. But there was no one to draw a line and engage in negotiations.

Hamas appeared to be an existential threat, and the response was a ground operation, a step that led to a scenario where it was clear from the start that the absolute victory was turning into absolute defeat from the moment the ground operation rolled forward without sufficient warning of Hamas’s capabilities to wage guerrilla warfare from one tunnel to another.

There is no doubt: The IDF is winning the war despite the intelligence gap that we pay for in with the lives and health of our soldiers, and the demand to continue the war stems from a government that is not willing to face the overall cost.

This victory is a matter of feeling. Everyone knows it.

Did you find a parking spot before someone else tried to beat you to it? The feeling of victory spreads throughout your body. You won.

Did your team win a championship? That is already a something to lift your spirits.

In our case in Gaza, even if we kill Yahya Sinwar, we won’t feel like we’ve won. Our spirits won’t be lifted.

Most Israeli citizens well be guided by feelings of bitterness and anger.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is playing Winston Churchill, who leads troops to absolute victory.

His hopes are that Sinwar will be captured and/or killed, which is also our hope. And also that the process of speeding up a returning to normal and better understanding of who we’re dealing with.

But even Netanyahu understands that Sinwar is just a tactical challenge and his elimination will not stop the strategic challenge, which is 2.5 million Gazans who are not going anywhere and are now like a ticking bomb, one that requires some kind of “war” (military control of the area) and other nonsense aimed at dragging out the war not to win, but to to be never-ending, in order to win the next election.

And in the meantime, the submission of the Israeli government is the job of the United States and other free countries in the world. And they are not alone.

More than half of the citizens of the State of Israel share the same views, and hope that the government collapses before it collapses the country.