“Maariv”: 2024 Marks Aggression as ’Israel’ Faces Unprecedented Challenges

By Staff, Agencies

Avi Ashkenazi, the military analyst for the “Israeli” newspaper “Maariv”, described 2024 as an “aggressive year,” noting that while the year has ended, the war in Gaza continues. He highlighted concurrent events in Lebanon, direct confrontations with Iran, the collapse of Bashar Al-Assad's government in Syria, efforts to suppress violent clashes in the West Bank and attempts to block Iran from establishing influence in Jordan.

Ashkenazi pointed out that, “Throughout 2024, no political breakthrough has been recorded in the case of releasing the detainees held by Hamas”. He remarked, “It is doubtful that any army in the world has undergone such a test since the end of World War II”. He elaborated that “‘Israel’ and its security establishment have never engaged in a conflict of this duration across so many fronts. The pressing questions remain: How long will the battles in Gaza and other arenas persist? What direction will the Syrian front take? Can the Jordanian monarchy withstand Iran’s destabilization attempts? What will become of the border with Lebanon and Hezbollah’s political and military status? And what lies ahead for the Iranian nuclear issue?”

He asserted, “The keys to these answers lie within ‘Israel,’ its neighboring states and the United States”. Ashkenazi noted the potential regional security shifts with the impending inauguration of Donald Trump as president in twenty days.

Ashkenazi underscored the challenges facing “Israel,” especially the toll of the prolonged war on both regular and reserve forces. He referred to Major General Moti Baruch's report presented to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which addressed operational discipline within the military. Unlike the police, which, in his view, has transitioned into a political organization and lost public trust, the “Israeli” forces are striving to retain their professionalism and combat readiness.

He explained: “The ‘Israeli’ forces and the ‘Shin Bet’ have observed the transformation of the police from a governmental institution into a politicized organization that lost the trust of a significant portion of the ‘Israeli’ public. This underscores the importance of operational discipline to preserve the professionalism and combat readiness of the military”.

He stressed: “The army must build its strength to face the endless challenges across seven fronts”. In his opinion, “The army must learn lessons from the catastrophe of October 7, 2023. This means it must be flexible in its operations on every front, aggressive toward any threat, and set clear objectives, the most important of which is the release of 100 detainees. It must also work significantly to resolve the issue of 'Haredi' recruitment into the army, which is not merely a social or legal matter but also a critical security necessity”.