Israeli armed forces are being "very methodical" with their plans for a military operation to protect the nation, George Birnbaum, a former chief of staff for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Newsmax Sunday.
"They are preparing to do what needs to be done in order to eradicate Hamas and at the same time, protect the citizens of the north from Hezbollah," Birnbaum said on Newmax's "Sunday Report." "We will see over the course of the next days and weeks a very precise and well carried-out military operation."
Nobody can tell for sure yet what a ground offensive into Gaza would look like, but it will involve "an enormous amount of force," that will not only clear out Hamas holdings above ground, but the tunnel network below as well, Birnbaum said.
"This is one of the ways that Hamas and other terrorist organizations operate," Birnbaum said of the Hamas underground capabilities. "They have an amazing network of tunnels underneath the ground. They're able to move people and weapons and terrorize innocent civilians, so it will be a ground, air, sea, and below-ground invasion."
Hamas has released two hostages, an American mother and daughter. Birnbaum said he hopes for more to be released, and while he hopes for them to be in good condition, he said that he doesn't "put anything against Hamas."
"These are people who murder and butcher babies, rape women, torture, and burn people alive, so I don't know what condition the hostages will be," he said. "I hope for their sakes and for the sakes of those that love them that they are in good shape and good condition … I wouldn't put any credence in anything from what Hamas says.
"I find it shocking that international media will believe the lies of an organization that is willing to behead babies."
Meanwhile, Birnbaum said he thinks the military success will come in two stages.
"Certainly the first is the elimination of Hamas," he said. "But I think the bigger picture is peace. Israel has always wanted peace. We've shaken hands with those who have blood on their hands in the past, with Anwar Sadat in 1979 in Egypt, with King Hussein in 2006."
Still, Hamas says it wants to "liberate the land from the river to the sea," meaning to eliminate Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, said Birnbaum, so "that is not a group of people that wants to make peace. That's a group of people that want to eliminate Jews from Israel."
The longer-term goal, he added, is for the "Palestinian people to finally do what their other Arab brothers and sisters have done whether it's from Egypt or Jordan or the Emirates or Sudan or Bahrain, and that recognizes that Jews and Muslims can live side by side in peace and prosper together."
But such peace is not possible as long as Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah controls Lebanon, and "as long as you have the Iranians funding it all, and groups like the Qataris hosting these terrorists," said Birnbaum.
"Peace will be possible when the people decide they want peace" and to live side-by-side," he continued.
"I think your viewers should remember that a two-state solution was offered by the United Nations in 1947. The World Zionists Organization accepted the two-state solution before the state of Israel even existed with the neutral Jerusalem and economic cooperation between an Arab state and a Jewish state. Since 1947, it's been the Palestinians that have rejected the idea of peace, not the Jews."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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