Israeli minister says the war in Gaza could last ten years

Obviously it was never possible for Israel to destroy Hamas completely and obviously Benjamin Netanyahu knew that (without ethnically cleansing all the Arabs from the occupied territories, which he would like to do but knows he wouldn't be allowed to).

Amos Harel, Ha'aretz, May 31, 2024:

'In the months during which Netanyahu prepared his supporters for the Rafah operation, he conveyed to them two interconnected messages: Rafah will be vanquished, and the victory over Hamas there will put Israel one step from total victory, if that is not achieved in full immediately. But in the past two weeks, the prime minister has rarely floated the slogan that appeared in every speech he made in the previous months, which his advisers and media supporters even emblazoned on caps.

'Amit Segal, the Channel 12 News commentator, who apparently understands Netanyahu better than most of us, explained Wednesday that Netanyahu's promise may have been "for campaign purposes." It's likely that even the prime minister's most avowed followers are starting to suspect that the final victory doesn't lie just around the corner, and that Hanegbi's assessment is closer to reality than his boss' promises.

'Minister David Amsalem outdid everyone when he said, Thursday, that the war will last "as long as is needed, even 10 years," until victory. He didn't note whether the victory will be achieved by extricating the prime minister from the straits in which he finds himself. As a substitute, and in the absence of a victory, it will always be possible to place the blame for the failure on others who didn't carry out the mission or interfered with it – the generals, the Americans, the left, the media – and effectively all of them together. After all, that has already been said regarding the blunders of October 7.'