Total Victory in Gaza, What Would That Mean?

by Col. (res.), Shay Shabtai - via The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In recent years, the concept of decisive victory has eroded in Israel.

October 7 brought it forcefully back to the center of the national security process.

There are 4 types of victory:

• tactical - the ability of the IDF to negate the enemy’s fighting ability

• operational - the ability of the operative echelon to dismantle the fighting system facing it, which is currently happening in Gaza

• military strategic - the ability to remove the military threat posed by the enemy for many years to come

• grand, or national, strategic - military victory leads to a fundamental change in the geopolitical situation, like a peace treaty or the establishment of a new regime

It seems that the “total victory” that is spoken about in the context of Gaza is a strategic victory, which, given the right interfaces among military, civil and economic moves, can bring about a relatively calm security situation for a decade or more.