Skip to main content

Gaza ceasefire: Israel's failure has left the nation in crisis mode

Any attempt to understand Israel’s current trajectory inevitably leads to the realisation that the country is spiralling into chaos
Israelis protest against the government in Tel Aviv on 4 January 4, 2025 (Reuters)

With the enforcement of the Gaza ceasefire deal and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Netzarim Corridor, both the Israeli government and the opposition find themselves in a complex position. 

For the past year and three months, there has been an Israeli consensus - encompassing the government’s supporters and opponents alike - around the rhetoric of genocide in Gaza and the need to ethnically cleanse the territory.

Now, unexpectedly, the new Trump administration in the US has forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into a ceasefire agreement, creating a crisis among the political elites and within Israeli society itself.

On one hand, the Israeli public was surprised to find that Hamas still maintains control over Gaza, despite a 15-month campaign in which the Israeli media relentlessly echoed state propaganda about the army’s tactical successes above and below ground, including complex underground combat strategies. 

On the other hand, Israeli society is paying a heavy price for the war economically, psychologically and in human lives. After 15 months of combat and countless bombings, as well as the military’s inhumane practices, Israel has still failed to eliminate Hamas. 

New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch

Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters

Worse still, the recent images emerging from Gaza, showing displaced Palestinians going back home through the Netzarim Corridor, have reinforced the Palestinian narrative of returning to their homeland.

The Israeli government now faces a fundamental dilemma. Apart from the religious nationalist factions - represented by Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party - most members of the government have concluded that it is time to end the war. 

Military failures

The ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, support the ceasefire in hopes that it will ease pressure on them regarding the military draft law for yeshiva students. Members of the economic right wing want to halt Israel’s economic downturn, hoping that with a ceasefire, the nation’s economy can recover from the war’s devastation. 

Ex-army generals, including those aligned with former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, recognise that there is no realistic military objective left - apart from the settler right’s aspiration to establish settlements in Gaza, a move that would create military complications for which the army is unprepared.


Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of the Israel-Palestine war


On the other side of the spectrum, Israeli centre-left and Zionist-left parties, which fully supported the war effort and perpetuated the rhetoric of genocide, are now grappling with the reality that Israel has not achieved its declared goals of dismantling Hamas’s rule, destroying its military wing (al-Qassam Brigades), and returning the hostages through military operations. 

Many of the hostages who perished in Gaza could have been brought back through a comprehensive deal, or at least more intelligent diplomatic maneuvering - something the Israeli government refused to pursue.

Amid all these failures, one unifying factor remains: Israel's insatiable desire for revenge against the Palestinian people

And if until now, Israel’s policing institutions were seen as having been politically hijacked by Ben Gvir, now, for the first time, the Israeli military itself is losing its traditional place at the heart of the Zionist consensus.

The crisis reached its peak with the resignation of military chief Herzi Halevi, one of the key figures responsible for the genocide in Gaza. Halevi operated without restraint, making inhumane decisions. 

But his legacy will not only be one of brutality; his failure on 7 October 2023 ensured that he will be remembered as an incompetent chief of staff who lost control over the military. Within the ranks, he no longer had the authority to enforce discipline, lead internal structural changes, or command effectively. 

His leadership failures have been exploited by right-wing officers (some of whom hold extremist nationalist views) to challenge his authority, as they have formed alliances with Smotrich to influence the selection of senior military officers, particularly favouring religious nationalists.

Spiralling into chaos

With Israel’s failure in Gaza and the political turmoil following the withdrawal of Ben Gvir’s party from the coalition, the government and military are now trying to appease other right-wing factions through large-scale military operations in the occupied West Bank - particularly in the Jenin refugee camp and other northern areas. 

This comes despite the Palestinian Authority’s ongoing cooperation with Israeli security forces, even at the expense of its own legitimacy in the West Bank. The real objective of these operations is to create an illusion of action for the religious right-wing public, which feels betrayed by Netanyahu and is pressuring Smotrich to leave the coalition as Ben Gvir did.

Gaza ceasefire: How Israel's colossal failure could reshape the global order
Read More »

Any attempt to understand Israel’s current trajectory inevitably leads to the realisation that the country is spiralling into chaos. Deepening internal divisions within the right, fragmentation among political elites, societal discord, and tensions within the military all paint a picture of a country in turmoil. But amid all these failures, one unifying factor remains: Israel’s insatiable desire for revenge against the Palestinian people.

The images emerging from Gaza are crucial for the Israeli public, which struggles to comprehend why, despite everything, the people of Gaza continue to resist and insist on returning home. 

Common sense would dictate that there is a limit to force, and that not everything can be resolved through more killing and destruction. But in Israel, political commentators are now blaming the failure of the war on “liberal progressive western values”, arguing that these values prevented the military from completing its mission - despite the fact that such values are virtually nonexistent within the Israeli army. The only factor limiting its actions has been a shortage of “dumb bombs” and d9 bulldozers due to delays in American weapons shipments.

Rationality, however, has little place in the current Israeli discourse. Any attempt to convince Israeli society that the only viable solution is a political agreement with the Palestinian people - including an end to the occupation, and relinquishing Jewish supremacy - will only invite ridicule. 

If you don’t want to be dismissed as delusional, it’s best not to say this outright to Israelis. They will likely figure it out for themselves - when it is already too late.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Abed Abou Shhadeh is a political activist based in Jaffa. Abou Shhadeh served as a city council representative of the Palestinian community in Jaffa-Tel Aviv from 2018 to 2024 and he holds an MA degree in political science from Tel Aviv university
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.