Maariv: “The Prophet of Wrath” Calls on Netanyahu to be reasonable and not to make existential decisions that will lead to Israel losing its strength
Retired Israeli Major General Yitzhak Brick warned that Israel’s ground army is small in size and cannot fight on multiple fronts, noting that after a year of fighting, the army hasn’t been able to defeat Hamas.
“Our ground army is small and cannot fight on more than one front… It cannot even defeat Hamas,” said Brick, nicknamed the “Prophet of Wrath”.
“When a comprehensive, multi-front regional war breaks out, the IDF will have to fight against at least several continental sectors at the same time,” he added.
“The army will have to fight against Hezbollah’s Radwan force in Lebanon, against pro-Iranian militias and the Syrian army in Syria, and against pro-Iranian forces and Iranian militias on the Jordanian border,” the general explained, stressing that the army will also have to work against the outbreak of a third intifada in the West Bank, and it will have to confront tens of thousands of extremists inside Israel, the possibility of Egypt joining the war, and of course Hamas in Gaza.
“All this before we bring Iran into the equation. Israel must choose targets for its response against Iran that don’t lead to escalation,” he added, stressing that “the wrong choice of targets for the attack could lead to escalation, a loss of control by both sides, and the outbreak of a comprehensive regional war, in addition to the missiles and rockets that the Iranians will launch… As they spread to population centers, ground fighting could break out on several fronts at the same time”.
He stressed that after the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah and the senior leadership of Hezbollah, there was great jubilation and joy in Israel, and this is obvious.
“What we don’t understand is how politicians from all parties,” senior military commentators, retired generals and others came out with great fanfare and said, among other things: “A new era has begun in the Middle East… Israel has become an influential and decisive factor in operations in the Middle East, and Hezbollah is on its way to defeat – it has lost the ability to operate”.
They even said, “It seems that absolute victory is achievable – we need to continue with all our might to finally defeat Hezbollah and Hamas, weaken Iran and neutralize its control over proxies in the region”.
“Even after the Israeli public’s jubilation over the achievements fueled by unreliable reports from the political and military echelons, we aren’t yet close to the collapse of Hamas and Hezbollah,” Brick noted.
He added, “The war of attrition continues with all its intensity and is causing the collapse of the state in all areas of life… Before we understand where we are going from now on, we must understand some of the facts that we have learned about our situation at this time”.
“The IDF will be severely exhausted,” Brick stressed, “All the burden falls on these people who are already on their fourth round of reserve duty since the beginning of the war… Many of them have lost their livelihoods, and sometimes their families as well, and they have already reached the end of their physical and mental capabilities”.
He stressed that regular soldiers are also exhausted, losing professional knowledge because their service cycles are disrupted, and sometimes don’t take place at all, and they are exhausted in the endless war… If this war of attrition continues, we may lose the ground army”.
Finally, Brick warned, “the decision-makers in the Israeli government may make existential decisions regarding Israel’s survival, and I’ve absolutely no confidence in their judgment and I warn: absolute victory cannot be achieved”.
