The fundamental differences between the upper echelons of the Israeli army and the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, which remained “submerged” for months under the blanket of unity in the war with Hamas, have emerged in recent days in an increasingly explicit and poisonous way. And today, Wednesday 19 June, the tension seems to have reached its peak, with rare harsh statements delivered on Israeli TV by the head of public communications of the IDF, the spokesperson in chief Daniel Hagari. His face has become familiar in recent months all over the world, and also in Israel. Like that of a tough guy, no doubt, but also of someone called to apologize or take steps back when the IDF made tragic mistakes – as in the case of the bombing of the World Central Kitchen humanitarian convoy last April. Hagari now seems to want to spend that capital of public notoriety against Netanyahu and his government. «Hamas is an idea, a political party. It is rooted in people’s hearts: anyone who thinks it can be eliminated is wrong,” the soldier said in an interview with Channel 13. And Netanyahu himself has been speaking openly about eliminating it and eradicating it for months. Furthermore, he has made it one of the central objectives of the ongoing war. An idea that doesn’t stand up, according to the IDF spokesperson. «What can be done is to develop something else to replace Hamas. Something that convinces the population that there is someone else to distribute the food, to take care of public services: this is the way to truly weaken Hamas.” If this is not the case, “if we don’t bring something else to Gaza we will end up with Hamas.”
War of words
In the interview, filmed by Haaretz, Hagari went so far as to question the government’s strategy even on the very delicate issue of hostages. Thinking of bringing them all home through military operations, such as the one implemented less than two weeks ago in Nuseirat, is simply “impossible”, said the army communications chief, according to whom Israel should rather “reach a scenario in which the hostages can be brought home in another way.” Read, it seems, through negotiations. A direct attack at the heart of Netanyahu’s political-military and communication strategy, which comes after days of controversy and “misunderstandings”. On Sunday, the announcement of the daytime pause in military operations in Rafah had enraged the executive, apparently unaware of the IDF’s decision. So yesterday a close collaborator of the prime minister, Yaakov Bardugo, published an article in which he accused the army chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, of being in favor of Hamas remaining in power in the Gaza Strip: a proposal branded by the spokesperson of ‘IDF as “a total and baseless lie”. Today the IDF’s new attack comes from Hagari. To which in the evening he couldn’t help but reply to the person concerned. “The security cabinet has defined as one of the objectives of this war the destruction of Hamas’s military and governance capabilities, and the army is bound to this,” Netanyahu said coldly in a statement.
