ON the June 19, the chief spokesperson of the Israeli Defence Forces Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari made the following comments about “this business of destroying Hamas”:
“Hamas is an ideology. It is rooted in the hearts of the people of Gaza. To eliminate it, to replace those who run the Public Services (and) those who distribute food... there must be an alternative that can emerge. It's a decision that has to be taken politically and the Army will implement it. Until that is done, Hamas will continue to exist. Hamas will not disappear from Gaza.”
He also said: “The idea that it is possible to destroy Hamas, to make Hamas vanish – that is throwing sand in the eyes of the public.”
Most professional military officers would never issue a statement that so glaringly contradicts what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government stated to be the objective of the war in Gaza: the total elimination of Hamas.
The fact that these comments were made publicly suggest an extremely high level of frustration on the part of the Israeli military, and some measure of desperation in wanting to push the Israeli government in a more practical direction.
In understanding this rift and its implications, we should look into how military officers think, and how politicians (such as those who control the Israeli government) think.
People who rise up the ranks of military service tend to be comfortable and content within a very rigid, well-defined structure. They are ambitious, but within very specific parameters. Theirs is a life that is full of rules and orders, and if you cannot practise teamwork and play by those internal rules like a true, disciplined, professional, you will not get far.
In comparison, in most democracies today, politicians must be able to thrive in arenas of nearly complete chaos, in which the most aggressively and blatantly self-interested seem somehow to climb ruthlessly over their colleagues, and rise to the top.
The top-ranking Israeli politician is of course Netanyahu himself.
Netanyahu was the first directly elected Prime Minister of Israel, from 1996-1999. He was Prime Minister again from 2009-2021, and from November 2022 to the present.
In 2019, he became the first ever sitting Israeli Prime Minister to be charged with a crime, when the Israeli attorney general filed indictments against Netanyahu on charges involving bribery and fraud.
In January 2023, Netanyahu’s government attempted to pass legislation that would limit the powers of Israel’s Supreme Court and give the executive branch more power – a move that was met with mass anti-government protests that lasted over nine months and saw hundreds of thousands of Israelis take to the streets, as well as a national strike.
These protests basically continued right until Oct 7, when Hamas attacked Israel.
The summary of the above is that going into the conflict, Netanyahu was on extremely thin political ice. His reckless actions and decisions seem to be a desperate attempt to turn the war into something that is politically advantageous to himself and his political allies, no matter how disadvantageous it may be to Israel’s own long-term interests.
This could explain why someone like Rear Admiral Hagari would feel compelled to make such controversial comments.
Claims like “We will wipe out Hamas” by Netanyahu may be designed as a show of bravado – the kind of chest thumping that some think is good for whipping up political support.
The military however, which does not have political ambitions or political calculations it needs to consider, can see clearly that such a sound bite has no practical groundings in reality. And a military operation without a definable, measurable, and sustainable objective is doomed to end in unnecessary death and destruction.
Hagari’s statement is true, in that Hamas is more than its armed wing. As an organisation, it basically provides social services similar to what a functioning government would provide. It has been historically popular among Gazans because of their ability to provide these services, and it is popular presumably because when you are being actively oppressed, anyone who is fighting said oppression can seem heroic.
As long as that oppression exists, there will always be a resistance. As long as no one is providing the services that Hamas provides, someone will provide said services.
This seems to be at the core of Hagari’s comments, which appear to be much more grounded in reality than Netanyahu’s grandstanding.
The fact that Hagari made these comments publicly can also be interpreted as an appeal to the Israeli public to exert political pressure to Netanyahu and his government.
Without such pressure, Netanyahu’s reckless, self-serving approach to the continued war and genocide – especially with the growing threat from Hezbollah on their northern front – will be a huge danger not only to Palestinians, but to Israelis themselves.
Nathaniel Tan is strategic communications consultant. He can be reached at nat@engage.my. The views expressed here are solely his own.
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