(LifeSiteNews) — As the Israeli government moves to fully occupy Gaza, a group of top-level former security and military officials has condemned the war as “futile.” They also warn that that the reckless actions of the Netanyahu government and its religious “messianic zealots” endanger the State of Israel.
That is a stunning admission to come from so many formerly powerful Israeli Zionists.
Hopefully this will mark the beginning of the end of the ongoing genocide of increasingly large numbers of children, their mothers and other innocent non-combatants.
Almost the entire world has been pleading for the mass killing, starvation and destruction to end, with only the Trump administration still continuing to arm Israel and encouraging it to “get the job done.”
Israeli news outlet Haaretz reported that the former head of Mossad, Tamir Pardo, said “the State of Israel is on the eve of defeat.”
Flanked by former officials who described Netanyahu as a “danger to Israel’s security,” Pardo explained: “The overwhelming majority of Chiefs of Staff, heads of the security services, Mossad, police commissioners, and Military Intelligence are here. We have all sat in the cabinets, the inner forums, in all the most sensitive decision-making processes.”
The statements in the August 4 report came from a television appearance released on Sunday “featuring a who’s who of Israel’s defense establishment, including past chiefs of the IDF, Mossad, Shin Bet, Military Intelligence, and the national police, delivering a rare, unified message,” according to Haaretz.
Explaining further how Israel “faces defeat” at home and abroad, Moshe Ya’alon – former chief of the Israeli army said the Israeli government has been “pulled in an irrational direction by messianic zealots.”
The statement appeared alongside reports stating the Netanyahu government is seeking to expand its military operations to the “full occupation” of Gaza.
Gaza: ‘a futile war’
The group included a second former head of the IDF, an additional two former heads of Mossad – the Israeli secret intelligence service – and the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, as well as the former police commissioner and a former head of military intelligence.
Haaretz said the group saw the Israeli army “mired in a static campaign” in Gaza which has no realistic military goal – and added they believe the war itself is pointless.
“No matter how good the army is, a war without a political objective will lead to defeat. The current war is a futile war,” said the group.
Echoing warnings from the past
Ehud Barak – the former prime minister and one-time defense minister of Israel, warned in April 2023 that Netanyahu’s winning coalition would see Israel’s democracy replaced with “a messianic dictatorship with nuclear weapons.”
Warnings from the panel of former top level Israeli officials stressed the enormous cost of the war in diplomatic terms, with Israel’s international reputation severely damaged and U.S. public opinion shifting against Israel.
In the recent Haaretz report, the former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon said: “This war began as a just war, a defensive war. But when we achieved all the military objectives, this war stopped being just.”
The Shin Bet is the domestic security service of Israel, similar in function to the FBI.
The group stated jointly that the Netanyahu government is driven by “messianic and extremist goals,” and has no realistic plan to free the hostages or guarantee Israel’s long-term national security.
Dire warnings for Israel
The statement of the group summarizes years of dire warnings that the state of Israel is endangered by the actions of the Netanyahu government. These warnings come from the former Israeli political, military and intelligence leadership, amplifying rising concerns that Israel is on the brink of disintegration.
The Netanyahu government is moving to occupy all of Gaza, as the U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff reassured the media this week that the U.S. was working to end the war and there was “hardship, but no starvation” in Gaza.
A second report in Haaretz shows the Netanyahu plan to “conquer” Gaza may not be possible at all and would take at least “two years.”
Nevertheless, Amos Harel, the author of the Haaretz article reports, “Netanyahu appears determined to expand the military operation in Gaza and may even consider occupying Gaza City…”
Why would Netanyahu seek to expand a “futile” war with no realistic military objective – and whose conduct has destroyed Israel’s reputation internationally? Why is he doing so against the wishes of the current army chief, Eyal Zamir?
“By doing so, [Netanyahu] signals to his far-right allies that he is not ignoring their demand for the occupation of all of Gaza.”
In addition to pleasing his extremist coalition partners, such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, Harel argues escalation allows Netanyahu to present himself as tough – in a crisis of his own creation.
“Second, he seeks to threaten Hamas now that hostage negotiations have stalled due to the hunger crisis in Gaza (which are largely a result of Netanyahu’s own policies).”
Finally, Harel adds, this is a media war maneuver: “Third, he aims to shift public attention away from his own failures.”
Harel notes that the current IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir is in a “spat” with Netanyahu over the plans to occupy the entire Gaza strip. The solution for Netanyahu, says Harel, sees the Israeli prime minister “potentially using Zamir as a scapegoat for the government’s inability to deliver a decisive victory.”
War and power
What is presented in this analysis is that the war is being prolonged and intensified not for military nor national security reasons – but for the personal benefit of Netanyahu himself.
This argument has been made since October 7 by leading Israelis. The former defense chief Yoav Gallant, who ordered the siege of Gaza with Netanyahu, has said Netanyahu should be investigated for failing to stop the October 7 attacks.
Gallant, then army chief, claims he was “prevented” from directing the army on the day of the attacks.
In February 2025, Gallant told Israeli TV he believed the “Hannibal Directive” was issued – meaning the IDF and air force killed Israelis to prevent their capture on October 7.
There is also evidence that this was not accidental. It was a deliberate execution of the Hannibal order by Israeli officials after they realized just ages were being taken.
This is confirmed by Yoav Gallant. Translation is correct and was produced by an Israeli. pic.twitter.com/AQAmSwng1Y
— Propaganda & co (@propandco) April 11, 2025
After being dismissed by Netanyahu, Gallant said in November 2024 that there was no military reason for the army to be in Gaza anymore: “There’s nothing left in Gaza to do. The major achievements have been achieved.”
The former army major-general added, “I fear we are staying there just because there is a desire to be there.”
Netanyahu: the enemy of peace
Gallant has also claimed, along with members of Netanyahu’s coalition, that Netanyahu personally stopped a July 2024 deal to return the hostages and end the war. In August 2024, Netanyahu was accused by his own negotiating team of sabotaging hostage and peace deals.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, a Kahanist extremist and Israel’s national security minister, “said the quiet part out loud” about Netanyahu months ago, according to reports in the Israeli media, which concluded “Netanyahu Sacrificed Hostages for Personal Interest.”
Long before this report in January 2025, the families of the hostages stated, “The Israeli government has decided to intentionally and knowingly sacrifice the hostages.”
In a statement made in May 2024, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Netanyahu’s coalition “prefers to continue the fighting over achieving the higher goal of freeing the hostages who have been abandoned by the government.”
The forum’s statement came the day after Netanyahu’s national security adviser announced the war would not be stopped to save the hostages.
“Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi today told relatives of several hostages held in Gaza that the current government will not agree to end the war in exchange for Hamas releasing all the hostages it has been holding since October 7.”
In May 2025, Steve Witkoff reportedly told the hostage families that “Israel is pointlessly extending Gaza war, US is urging a deal” – as the Times of Israel said.
The narratives supplied for the horrific actions of Israel in Gaza and the West Bank are openly denied by officials whose job it was to preserve the integrity of the state. The situation is so grave that even Israel Hayom, a newspaper bought to propel Netanyahu to power, has warned this summer that Israel is being led by him to the brink of civil war.
Reports from Israel have once again provided a sharp corrective to the blizzard of confusion and doubt sown in the Western media. This news is not even new to many Israelis, who have watched and warned for years that the fate of the State of Israel is being gambled away by a government of extremists whose common enemy is peace.
