Guillaume Ansel says Israel is “fighting against the devil”.

On the 28th day of the war between Israel and Hamas, Guillaume Ancel believes “The impression the Israeli government gives is that it wants to continue this stalemate at all costs, as the Netanyahu government is currently showing no strategy against Hamas. Currently, Israel’s non-strategic strategy is destroying the Palestinian people* (…) It is unacceptable to the international community and their best allies like the US.“.

The writer recalls the comments made by US President Joe Biden two weeks ago during his visit to Israeli soil: “That said, you should be clear about your battle objectives. Above all, let’s not make the same mistake we did after the September 11 attacks, when we remember, for example, that the Americans invaded Afghanistan to drive out the Taliban. Then, ten years later, they were forced to leave their tails between their legs“.

Hamas, an army of demons

Guillaume Ancel believes the Israeli government is making a mistake in its military response to Hamas.In military terms, this is not a difficult target” : “Hamas has no regular army, no tanks, no battle bases, and no military-destroyed heavy weapons or ammunition depots. However, the IDF is a regular army. So the IDF is fighting a demon“.
Therefore, according to him, the IDFFighting in one of the world’s most densely populated areas can only result in civilian deaths“.

Israel is trapped in its strategy

Regarding the October 7 attack, “We suspected that it was not 1000 or 1500 Hamas fighters who were going to bring total brutality and overthrow the Israeli government.“, the former official analyzes that this is only a provocation to trap Israel: “It was clearly intended to lead Israel to the desired destination. The Israeli army rushes into a trap laid by Hamas, and it is this ground fighting in the Gaza Strip where 2.5 million Palestinians live in poverty and have been under attack for a month.
But in fact, by doing this, not only has Hamas become an essential actor for the Palestinians, which has not been entirely obvious until now, but in addition, in terms of the international community, Israel is completely discrediting itself. His answer was completely inappropriate. And that brings me to the lack of strategy: Hamas has succeeded in trapping Israel..

Update, Sunday November 5, 8am: In the interview, Guillaume Ancel correctly spells “the Israeli population”. Then clarified Means “Palestinian people”. To avoid confusion, the title of the article containing the quote has been changed.