“There is support from the right and the left for the program,” said the General in Rep. Giora Island after the discussion about his participation in the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee of the Knesset, Wednesday. The debate dealt with the “Champions Plan” that he put forward a few weeks ago, which includes the encirclement of the northern part of the Gaza Strip, encouraging the population to leave in two axes, and then a complete siege of the area with the title and the remaining ones. in it, without introducing any provisions. “Strategically,” he says, “a siege on the third part of the Gaza Strip, where Hamas’ governing institutions are located, will put pressure on the group and be a bargaining chip in the case of those who ‘kidnapped.’
According to Eiland, the situation in Gaza is currently at a standstill. “If we don’t want to be in the same situation a year from now when the number of live abductions is zero, we have to make a move,” he said. reality in Gaza mostly from the military point of view, and he is satisfied that he destroyed such Hamas battalions and that he killed such places that were destroyed for the production of weapons. But the the important prism of the civil-government-economic one, and in this sense the situation is not good as fuel and gas for cooking and it is possible to operate a bakery and bake hot pita bread, the Gazan public. relatively satisfied, so they do not emphasize his leadership.
“Hamas distributes the supplies. Not only does he take over the trucks but he controls the system. Many of the truck drivers are members of Hamas, so the people feel that Hamas cares for them, and in fact this is true. Hamas keeps part of the supplies for itself, sells the rest, and that’s how it gets rich. whose employment is almost the only livelihood option they face today.”
Eiland: “According to the US Department of Defense guidebook, I can make a siege even without evacuating the civilians, because Hamas is the one who provides the food”
Eiland, former head of the IDF operations department and head of the National Security Council, believes that the American administration will be able to approve the course of action he presented, even if the US has imposed sanctions on citizens who tried to block the convoys. Gaza. “Block of trade is not only permissible according to international law; According to the Americans, it is recommended,” Eiland says. “Save yourself, do not kill many civilians, and prevent touching. The US Department of Defense has a manual of about 1,200 pages that explains how to apply the laws of war. It says there that you can create a siege until you kill the enemy.
“One of the conditions for them is safe exit passages. In the plan that was put forward, I am much more careful than they are. They write, as long as there is a civilian population in the region, that you cannot create a siege to the point of starvation, unless you have the ability to prove that the regime is stealing food from the citizens.
If he had been in office, says Eiland, he could have easily convinced the Americans of the need for restraint: “I would have come to the meeting with the 1,200-page book, he opened the relevant section, read what is written there, that I learned from them and that I completely accept the American proposal that I am saying This is from experience I had successful discussions with the Americans, and they do not believe in the Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer. In his opinion, the only party in the coalition that has confidence in the US capital is only the Minister of Defense Yoav Galant.
“Even a teaspoon of water”
From the beginning of the war, Eiland spoke out against the introduction of aid to the Gaza Strip. This week he says it is to pour milk. “You can’t change a narrative today. On October 7, in a new reality, when you decide on a strategy, you also create the story that comes out.” According to him, Israel made two big mistakes in the first days of the war: “We accepted the statement that Hamas is similar to ISIS. At the level of cruelty, this is true, but that is where the similarity comes to the end. In the eyes of the Americans, if Hamas is ISIS – they know what ISIS is, a group of gangsters who have taken over the territory and they ruled terror not bad enemy, without a command and control system, without Iran’s support systems, without a presence on the ground that has been established for 15 years.
“Hamas is not ISIS. To the question about what happened on October 7, we had to answer that the state of Gaza started a war against the state of Israel, and that our war is against a state that has cooperated around the government and its systems. , including the education system and mosques.”
The second thing Israel lost, according to him, is the question of our relative advantage over Hamas. “Israel’s advantage over Gaza is not military. They have built a system that does not collapse easily. That is why our statement that only military pressure will produce results was a mistake. nothing comes into this country.
“The Prime Minister should have told President Biden, when he came to visit Israel in the first weeks after the massacre, that the State of Israel cannot compromise with those who abduction Israel stands by its values and will not send even a spoonful of water into Gaza until they are released Hamas strengthens every day.”
Eiland’s words about Israel’s plea to surrender to Hamas are confirmed by a report here by the B Network, according to which Israel presented to the US a new proposal for a deal: the simultaneous release of all abductees , a safe passage out of the Strip for the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar and anyone who wants to join him, the release of Palestinian Prisoners, the disarmament of the Strip and the use of a different method of control in Gaza, and the end of the war, a senior Hamas official rejected the proposal.
Along with his proposal to stop the northern Gaza Strip, Eiland is against new settlements there. “I’m not political,” said the official given by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the time to build the disengagement and evacuation plan from Gaza and four settlements in northern Samaria. “When they were talking about withdrawing from the Golan Heights, I was the most right-wing in Israel. In other things, I am a leftist in terms of values. As far as I’m concerned, I try to serve Israel’s interest. Some people on the center left tell me that the coalition will accept my plan to promote Israeli settlement there. the Gaza Strip, I am against this.
Regarding the northern front, as yesterday, Eiland also believed that after the explosion of the bees, an action that Israel claimed Lebanon, a “small and simple” ground military action should be initiated, which will create more better. protection against long-range fire and from UAVs and being a pressure tool: “I understand that it is possible to do such a ground operation without being dragged into a war that – out.”
