As Israeli soldiers continue to pay with their lives, it's time to confront the elephant in the war room: IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi's circular strategy that keeps sending troops back into "cleared" areas like a deadly game of whack-a-mole.
Week after week, we bury our sons - bright-eyed 19-year-olds who should be planning university studies or backpacking trips to Thailand. Instead, their mothers collapse by fresh graves, clutching their boys' berets and dog tags. These aren't just statistics; they're our children, sent back into the same deadly corridors where their comrades fell just weeks before. Each funeral brings the same haunting question: Was this death necessary, or just another casualty of Halevi's revolving door strategy?
Halevi's playbook reads like a tragic loop - raid, withdraw, repeat - with each cycle costing more precious lives. Our soldiers clear an area only to be sent back weeks later, facing fresh booby traps in supposedly "secured" territories. The enemy isn't being defeated; they're being given time to regroup and rearm.
The warning signs were there long before October 7. Intelligence officers raised red flags, but under Halevi's watch, these warnings gathered dust. Now, those same decision-making patterns plague our current campaign - a sluggish, meandering operation that seems more focused on appearing busy than achieving decisive results.
His appointments to key positions have raised eyebrows among veteran military observers. But more concerning is the growing whisper among combat units: Are we fighting to win, or are we fighting to look like we're fighting? The mounting psychological toll on our forces, cycling through the same deadly neighborhoods week after week, suggests the latter.
As this war drags on without a clear endgame, one question burns: How many more soldiers must be sacrificed to a strategy that seems designed to avoid victory rather than achieve it? Our troops deserve better than being caught in Halevi's endless carousel of caution. Each day we delay, another mother learns that her son's bedroom will remain forever empty.
Note: Opinion pieces reflect the views of the author and not necessarily those of this publication.
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