Taking Israel, a traditionally alert nation, by complete surprise, that event triggered one of the most intense conflicts of recent times anywhere in the world.
By West Asian norms, intense wars involving Israel have mostly been short, focused and result-driven. The war initiated by the October 7 attack, however, has witnessed an Israeli overkill campaign in Gaza as a response that has recently expanded to other borders and regions. It's one of those inexplicable campaigns where complete asymmetry exists, but final success for Israel is and will remain elusive.
The campaign has progressed only towards greater complexity with little chance of any eventual drawdown, stabilisation or outright victory. It's a strange war, essentially conventional by one side (Israel) but against a nonstate entity (Hamas) that does not fight by rules. As a result, Israel has also chosen to fight without international rules and norms of war.
Two factors have driven Israel's selection of its strategy. First, the status of its own leadership has been under severe political test even before the war. Hence, it considers the war a point of relief. An outright victory for Israel may have brought a reprieve for the leadership if an end state had been achieved in which the hostages had all been rescued or released, or Hamas had sued for a ceasefire.
Even if no solutions would have emerged or negotiations initiated, a kind of status quo ante would still have been restored.
By Israeli military standards, the revenge for 1,200 deaths could pragmatically have translated into the surgically targeted killing of Hamas fighters and leadership, probably three or four times that number. Sadly, as against that, an overkill strategy has been adopted under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 08, 2024 من The New Indian Express.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 08, 2024 من The New Indian Express.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Girls Will Be Girls gets Prime Video premiere date
SHUCHI Talati's coming-of-age drama Girls Will Be Girls will drop on Prime Video on December 18, the streamer announced on Wednesday.
Netflix announces docu-series on Roshan film family
Netflix has announced a docu-series titled The Roshans, which will give a deep dive into the legacy of Hrithik Roshan's film family.
Martin Starr onboard The Hand That Rocks the Cradle remake
Earlier, we reported about Maika Monroe starring in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle remake from 20th Century Studios.
Inside the mind of the Fanboy Killer
RYAN Eggold plays the antagonist in the Prime Video series Cross, opposite Aldis Hodge's titular detective.
'I felt I was not the right person to tell Dr Ambedkar's story'
THE INDEPENDENT AMERICAN WRITER-FILMMAKER-ACTIVIST AVA DUVERNAY ON THE CHALLENGES OF DEALING WITH THE COMPLEX REALITY OF THE CASTE SYSTEM IN INDIA AND ITS INTRINSIC PREJUDICES AND BRUTALITIES IN HER RECENT FILM ORIGIN
'HAD I NOT BEEN A POET.I'D HAVE BEEN A MESS
Jeet Thayil’s latest collection of poems is about loss, ageing, and the recovery of the self in the world. ll Have It Here is his first book of poetry after 15 years and the death of his wife
Forbidden art
A Bengali artist's Chittapro's sketches of the Bengal were banned and all copies of the booklet in which it was published were destroyed.
UNEARTHING AMUSEMENTS
Imagine an ideal world, where if one wanted to do research in traditional games, one would be able to go through some old texts and find the list of games that people used to play – with detailed descriptions of the board, the game pieces, the throw pieces, the rules and a little about why the game was created, its history, its cultural underpinnings.
Bounjour meets Vanakkam
DOWNSTAIRS at Higginbothams, the scent of aged paper filled the air, surrounded by shelves stacked high with books. But upstairs, the iconic bookstore on Anna Salai transformed into a cosy haven for lovers of literature.
Therapy disguised as comedy
ET's rewind to 2019. Chennai was buzzing with Bigil fever, TikTok trends, and, of course, the Chapathi Song - Aravind SA's hilarious parody of Lungi Dance that became an instant hit.
