Arab miscalculation about the Jewish fighting spirit

They never thought that Israel would have the stomach for the long fight and resist the pressures by the United States.

Barry Shaw | Sep 22, 2024

Barry Shaw   Courtesy

The military and intelligence strategies employed by Israel in Gaza and in Lebanon have confused Arab strategic “experts.”

Anti-Israel Arab research institutes as well as Egyptian and Syrian researchers and think tanks, have come to the conclusion – and some have admitted – that Israel’s firm stand in the past year is not what they expected.

They expected that Israel’s resolve would not last. That internal and external pressures would overwhelm the country.

This conclusion was the result of their perceptions of the internal and external pressures on Israeli decision makers throughout Israel’s multi-front wars, all imposed on the Jewish State since the Palestinian Hamas barbarians initiated the attack of 7 October 2023.

Their published reports also deal with the recent dramatic effect created by the explosions of Hezbollah’s communication devices in Lebanon, and the advantage that gives to Israel.

However, their report assumes that the advantage created by the explosions will erode, as time passes, from Israel’s point of view and that Hezbollah will be able to recover.

“It seems that the ground war in Gaza, the ongoing fighting on the Lebanese front and the attitude of the Israeli government to the issue of the prisoners (kidnapped), have changed some of the perceptions of the past (among Israel’s enemies regarding Israel’s ability to wage a long-term war, and also how the Zionist entity grasps the issue of the prisoners (the hostages), in a time of war and a situation of existential threat as created by the “Tufan al-Aqsa” system (the current war).

“Some of the past conclusions on these issues require new research.”

“This campaign urges us to learn more about the “distraction and confusion tactic” used by the Israeli media, which recently floods the Arab and Western media with leaks about conflicts between Israeli officials on the subject of the war, at a time when Tel Aviv Israel continues to march towards its political and military goals, when it practically implements what might be called its”(dis)information war.”

In short, Israel’s academic enemies are scratching their heads.

They never thought that Israel would have the stomach for the long fight and resist the pressures of the United States.

In part this comes from their view of past Arab-Israeli wars which ended within days or a relatively short period of time, usually with an Israeli victory.

They did not think that the Jewish State had the stomach for a long war.

In short, they under-estimated the Israeli mottos “Never Again!” and “Masada Will Not Fall Again!” which constitute the psychological spine and the authentic Jewish spirit of the State of Israel.

Barry Shaw is at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.