No operation is taking place in Gaza

Palestinians search through the rubble of a building in which Khaled Mansour, a top Islamic Jihad militant was killed following an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza strip, 7 August 2022

Rogel Alpher writes in Haaretz on 8 August 2022:

There’s a lie that’s almost unanimously accepted in Israel these days according to which a military operation is now taking place in the Gaza Strip. But that isn’t true. There’s no military operation in Gaza. Everything we are being told about the operation that’s ostensibly taking place there is wrong.

Prior to the incident that is being called an “operation” and has been code-named “Breaking Dawn,” no rockets or mortars were fired at Israel. We’re told that the reason no rockets were fired from Gaza beforehand is that residents of communities near Gaza were ordered to remain under lockdown, thereby depriving Islamic Jihad of the targets at which it wanted to launch rockets. That was the explanation.

Despite all the widely accepted lies amid which we live, I definitely remember that this was the explanation. Yet ever since the incident that’s called an “operation” began, communities near Gaza have remained under lockdown. Except now, there are also rockets being fired at Israel – and not just at communities near the border, but also at Ashkelon and Ashdod, Bat Yam and Rishon Letzion and Tel Aviv.

So here’s an interim assessment: Before the “operation,” there were no rocket launches, “because everyone was in lockdown”; during the operation, there have been hundreds of launches, even though communities near Gaza are still under lockdown. The reason for the rocket launches is the “operation,” and the goal of the “operation” is to rid Israel of the threat of the rockets being launched because of the “operation.”

The obvious conclusion is that the only “operation” now taking place in Gaza is a reverse operation, a deliberate attempt to maximize rocket and mortar fire at Israel. This effort has succeeded impressively. As of when this was written, more than 350 rockets had already been fired at Israel.

Moreover, stopping the rocket launches isn’t one of the goals of this invented, nonexistent “operation.” Let me repeat that: Stopping the rocket fire isn’t one of the goals of this “operation,” whose declared purpose is to rid Israelis of the threat of the rockets. Because the army isn’t capable of stopping the rocket fire.

“It will take as long as it takes,” Prime Minister Yair Lapid declared combatively. But if so, then the “operation” will continue forever. Because all the time in the world wouldn’t be enough to stop the rocket fire from Gaza.

The “operation” that isn’t taking place in Gaza is also meant to destroy terrorist infrastructure. To this end, the air force is dropping bombs. To this end, the leaders of Islamic Jihad in Gaza are being assassinated.

But the terrorist infrastructure isn’t being destroyed. As evidence, Islamic Jihad is still launching rockets. And this is the absurd reality, soaked in children’s blood, in which we now live.

Nevertheless, television studios keep broadcasting reports about the “operation” that doesn’t exist – that never existed. And they keep bringing pundits into the studio who talk about removing the threat and destroying terrorist infrastructure.

They also talk about “deterrence.” What deterrence? There is no deterrence. It’s impossible to restore or heighten what never existed to begin with. If anything, it seems as if before the “operation” to restore “deterrence” began, Islamic Jihad actually was deterred – or at least, deterred enough not to fire rockets at the greater Tel Aviv area.

And from the moment the “operation” began, pundits have been talking about the disappointment and frustration that the public will likely feel when it’s over. Because the public is expecting the threat to be removed, “as long as it takes.” But it will then discover that the threat has only intensified, and it doesn’t matter how long it takes.

The problem is that the public, in its innocence, still thinks an “operation” is taking place. But there is no operation in Gaza. That’s a lie.

What is taking place there is a great deal of killing and death and destruction. And in Israel, there’s anxiety and disrupted routine, along with a little bit of death and destruction. But that isn’t an “operation.” It’s just killing and death and destruction. And the situation after the “operation” will be exactly what it was beforehand – offering decisive proof that it never took place.

Here’s an interim assessment: Before the ‘operation,’ there were no rocket launches; during the operation, there have been hundreds of launches.

This article is reproduced in its entirety.