Afrasianet - Despite the failure of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to achieve the stated goals of his war on the Gaza Strip, as he failed to eliminate Hamas , free detainees, impose Israel's vision for the next day in the Strip, and displace Palestinians, despite exhausting all possible global alliances and intelligence tools, he still tries to portray Israel as an invincible state.
Observers believe that Netanyahu is living in a state of political unreality or what is described as a "state of denial", rejecting the idea of defeat or failure, as the viewer can notice the selectivity of what Israel announces and what it hides and leaks secretly to the media.
The Israeli prime minister is cloaked in religious cover to achieve military objectives in a war described as the longest war in Israel's history, a war of attrition that has moved inward and caused what is described as catastrophic effects on Israeli security, economy, agriculture and technology, in addition to the fracture of the home front and the creation of crises that accompany his soldiers, despite his secrecy. Here we reveal the other side of the war in Gaza, and how the Al-Aqsa flood and the war on Gaza that exceeded a year affected Israel from inside and outside, and what they are trying to hide in various ways.
Religion.. Netanyahu's losing bet
Israel has been circulating the term "religious war" since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023, to become one of the most officially and media-circulated terms in the context of the internal occupation crises and its war in Gaza and Lebanon.
It has become clear that Netanyahu relies heavily on placing the war in religious contexts, replacing the name of the Israeli aggression on Gaza from "iron swords" to "war
of resurrection," apparently referring to the battle of Armageddon (Mount Megiddo), which biblical sources described as a war between good and evil or between God and Satan.
In addition to justifying the bloody crimes in Gaza, he tries to strengthen the domestic front full of contradictions and disintegration, believing that the Israeli public's preoccupation with the idea of an external threat earns him popular and international support.
Experts believe that what Netanyahu is doing is a losing bet, as religious temptations can no longer mobilize more fighters, especially with the return of the issue of recruiting ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim) to constitute a crisis within the Israeli government.
Israel's state broadcaster said in July that it had obtained an audio recording of Israel's former Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef saying, "Every biblical scholar is exempt from conscription, even an unemployed person who does not study."
"Those who join the army are corrupted. There are female soldiers and officers and profanity, there are horrible and inappropriate things, don't go there." "Anyone who receives notices should tear them up and not go. He is with the Torah, and if they take him to prison, the head of his religious school will go with him."
While the figures suggest even more seriously, 18,000 combat reservists do not show up when called, Israel cannot bring them by force, and 15% dropped out during their service and did not enter the reserve group at all, in light of the massive shortage faced by the Israeli army in the number of fighters.
Suicides were recorded among the reservists, who constitute the army's companion force, and the army announced its need for an additional 7,000 soldiers, of whom only 1,500 were enrolled, and the rest received medical exemptions or evaded military service in some way.
The escalating conflict of religious concepts among the occupation army is no longer a factor to continue, as counter-reactions and rejection of military service have also begun to manifest, as revealed by the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" in June 2024, that 42 reserve soldiers who served in the army during the current war signed at the end of last May the first letter refusing service since the outbreak of the war, in which they said, "We will not return to military service in Gaza even if we pay the price for our position."
Interestingly, the Israeli government gives reservists benefits that differ from other fighters, as they are given monthly salaries twice as much as ordinary soldiers, the army pays rent (up to 1,048 shekels per month), and they
are placed to guard the border by land, air and sea, yet they did not continue.
Medical Sector
Israel's medical sector is one of the sectors affected by the war, as it suffers from a severe and persistent shortage of health care workforce, according to the TOP Center for Social Policy Studies in Jerusalem, along with a decrease in the number of hospital beds.
On the ground, Israel is witnessing an unprecedented exodus of doctors, as the rate has risen to 10 times the usual level, according to Israel's Channel 13, and the deputy director general for medical affairs at Ichilov Hospital, who is in charge of human resources, described this migration as "calm."
This wave of departure comes in light of political turmoil in Tel Aviv and at a time of increasing demand for health services, especially in the field of mental health, as Israel is facing a real dilemma in this sector in particular after dozens of psychiatrists left for Britain in search of a better opportunity, believing that "their place is not here and they do not want to stay."
Warnings are raised that there is a real risk that the population in Israel will be less educated and less innovative, encouraging more emigration of educated and medical workers that will drain human resources.
Amid staff shortages and fears of escalating conflict, the Israeli Ministry of Health has set guidelines, opening the door to volunteering for doctors and specialists to address critical gaps in the Gaza Strip, and publishing volunteer models in hospitals, targeting doctors, nurses, paramedics and other licensed medical personnel abroad.
The ministry also established a voluntary association under the ministry's national system, inviting interested people, including medical staff, from Israel and around the world to register and add the volunteer's name to a growing community of Israeli supporters.
Occupations required for volunteer work from Israel and abroad included doctors, dentists, nursing students, paramedics, dietitians, social workers, physiotherapists, general practitioners, emergency physicians, psychiatrists, pharmacists and physician assistants, licensed to work in Israel or abroad.
It also opened the way for Israeli volunteers in the field of the health system to serve those who need medical assistance and can help with various needs such as administration, logistics and transportation.
Volunteer places include Ashkelon (northeast of Gaza), Beersheba, Jerusalem, the Sharon area, Haifa, and the Galilee, areas that have been under rocket fire by Palestinian factions since the Gaza war began on October 7.
Khaled Khalil, a journalist specializing in Israeli affairs, explains this state of alert as Israel is trying to attract medical volunteers as belonging to the West and Western civilization and is being invaded by Hamas, in order to gain a kind of Western legitimacy and sympathy.
It cannot be overlooked that the war, which lasted for more than a year, has had a heavy cost for Israel, in addition to the Hebrew media talking about injuries in the occupation army with discreet numbers, and talking about critical injuries among soldiers, which puts pressure on the medical infrastructure.
Technology Sector
On the other hand, the high-tech sector is an engine of the Israeli economy and is responsible for a large share of exports and absorbs large numbers of employees. Over the past 30 years, Israel has cemented its position as a global capital for startups, especially in the tech sector, and has become a destination for global seekers, but this quickly changed in 2023, according to the Angel Investors Index.
Since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Israel has witnessed a significant decline in the technology sector, as the status and reputation of Israeli companies has declined due to the war in Gaza, foreign investors' confidence in the Israeli economy and companies has decreased, and the volume of employment has declined from 10% in 2022 to
2.6% in 2023, according to the Innovation Authority's report.
The report revealed a decrease in the productivity of the sector and a decline in total employees by about 7%, due to their joining the reserve forces after the Al-Aqsa flood, and some companies moved their offices outside Israel, and some employees moved to European countries.
Venture capital investments by Israeli companies saw a 6% decline from October 2023 to September 2024, along with a sharp 30% decline in the number of foreign and Israeli investments.
The Israel Association for Advanced Technology surveyed 30 Israeli venture capital funds in May and published its results in early June. The poll showed the enormous damage to the technology sector as a result of the war on Gaza and Israel's declining international standing in this regard.
According to 38% of respondents, at least one of the companies in which they invest has moved their operations abroad due to unstable conditions in Israel, and a third of them estimate that more than 30% of these companies have already moved their operations abroad last year, or will move large operations abroad next year.
Unemployment is one of the consequences of the impact of the war on the technology sector in Gaza, with fintech company OneZero announcing in September that it would
lay off 6% of its employees after suspending a deal with Italian financial services group Generali to set up a digital bank in Italy, which the company's president attributes to "uncertainty about the war situation."
Moreover, foreign technology companies have shut down their operations in Israel, such as Dropbox and Freily.
Discreet on losses
It is no secret that the IDF deliberately covers up its continuous heavy losses and controls the sources of information in advance, but leaks from time to time and civil society institutions indicate the multiplier losses in human and material terms.
Ayman al-Barasneh, a professor of political science and international relations, attributed this to the occupation's fears of the fracture of the Israeli home front, which suffers from a boiling state due to the inability to recover hostages, and the catastrophic effects of the war on the occupation, whose losses are estimated at more than $ 60 billion, in addition to fears that it will reflect on the morale of the fighters.
Indicators confirm that the war has destabilized most sectors in Israel, witnessing a relative halt to civil aviation, investments and tourism, a disruption to the economy, an increase in the pace of adverse migration and a depreciation of the local currency.
Al-Barasaneh says in his interview with Al Jazeera Net that the year 2024 was disastrous for Israel due to the unprecedented rise in the rate of immigration, as the total number of departures reached about 58,000, in an indication of a clear failure in the strategy of linking to the land they are talking about.
In addition, Israel does not have a clear vision or a realistic plan to settle the conflict, as it rejects the two-state solution and the one-state solution, and is also unable to impose displacement, which means the continuation of the cycle of violence in the region, in addition to its lack of strategic depth, which is the distance between its borders and its external threats.
Analysts believe that Israel is an entity with a very limited depth and its industrial centers and 60% of its population are concentrated on an area that does not extend for more than 100 kilometers, and despite the development of modern technology, rockets and resistance drones were able to penetrate it, and it is still subjected to attacks of this kind, according to Brasaneh.
"The attacks carried out by the resistance caused a shock to Israel that lost much of its image, foremost of which is the intelligence side, which collapsed despite its excessive use of technology after the resistance men managed to enter the Israeli settlements adjacent to the most secure and fortified area the occupation considers," said retired Major General Odeh al-Shdeifat.
It cannot be overlooked that the so-called regional economic peace had given the prime minister and his government some reassurance, but the Al-Aqsa flood disrupted all those projects through which Netanyahu believed that he was about to close the file of the Palestinian issue and enter the entire region into the era of "Israeli superiority."
After all, can Netanyahu hide that the Al-Aqsa flood shook Israel's image, broke its might, and confused its institutions?