Fiamma Nirenstein
JNS, Aug. 8, 2025
“If the West cannot confront a genocidal Islamist movement after the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, it forfeits its own moral standing.”
It was an unusually candid moment. Speaking to a small group of journalists before Thursday night’s Security Cabinet meeting—a rare move in itself—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made something crystal clear: Israel’s upcoming operation in Gaza is not about permanent occupation.
The goal is to dismantle Hamas’s war machine and, at the right moment, hand administrative control to reliable international partners—trusted Arab states that understand the stakes.
But this will be a strategic shift. Israel will remain only where necessary to ensure that Gaza can never again serve as a launchpad for terror. The decision comes after 672 exhausting days of war—days marked by courage, sacrifice and national resilience, but also by deep wounds: tens of thousands injured, many psychologically scarred, families shattered, an economy under strain and a rising tide of antisemitism at home and abroad.
The Security Cabinet debate that led to this decision was fierce but ultimately unified. Netanyahu was determined to send in IDF forces to Gaza City and areas in the Gaza Strip not under Israeli control. Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir urged a more cautious approach, surrounding the remaining terror strongholds to protect the hostages’ lives.
Now reality has forced Israel’s hand: Hamas has flatly refused to release the captives. Those skeletal men, women, and children cannot wait. Israel cannot permit Hamas to continue torturing them to death, nor to keep plotting the next Oct. 7 from the tunnels of Gaza.
As U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio put it bluntly: “As long as Hamas exists as an armed group in Gaza, there will not be a peace; there will not be a peaceful future because it’s going to happen again and this can never happen again.”….SOURCE