'No strategic political endgame in sight' as Israel seeks to extinguish Irans' 'ring of fire'

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00:00Well, we can speak now to associate fellow in the Middle East

00:03program at Chatham House, Mr. Yossi Mechelberg.

00:05Mr. Mechelberg, thanks so much for your time and joining us here on France 24.

00:10Looking at the the wars that have started over a year ago now,

00:15both in Gaza and extending into Lebanon,

00:19I'd like to ask you, first of all, this all was sparked by that attack

00:23by Hamas on October 7th, an attack that seemed to surprise the Israeli military.

00:28You know, came with harsh criticism against how Israel was was not securing its people.

00:34But a year on, and it looks like the prime minister has more support than ever.

00:38Good morning.

00:40Obviously, the surprise of October 7 and the terrible atrocities committed by Hamas

00:46been all very well documented.

00:49And Israel commemorated this yesterday, very somber day in Israel.

00:54But we are a year later and the suffering inflicted first on the Palestinians in Gaza.

01:01There is a low intensity, but very costly, low intensity war in the West Bank.

01:08And what we see is escalation not only in Lebanon, but we already expected

01:13a response of Israel in Iran to Iran launching missiles last week.

01:20So we are in the middle of something, multi-front war,

01:24as we just heard from the surgeon in South Lebanon interviewed,

01:29many civilians are paying with their life,

01:32including people that work for the emergency services.

01:36But the big question is, yes, on the one hand, every military can find many targets.

01:44You mentioned 120 targets yesterday.

01:47The question is, what is the political aim?

01:50At one point, you move from the military operation into the political diplomatic sphere

01:57and try to create a first an end to the war and then some long term military solution.

02:04As for Netanyahu himself, I think because what happens in Lebanon,

02:10the sense that there is success,

02:13that the war in Gaza, at least for Israel, seems to come down,

02:17there is an increase in support of him.

02:21And unfortunately, Netanyahu is a master manipulator on Israeli politics

02:26and he survived it for a long time.

02:28So do you think Israeli people as a whole support the wars that have been taking place

02:33and that are ongoing for over a year,

02:34with, as you mentioned, all the civilian casualties that go with it?

02:38I think the support thinks many times that they are contradictory.

02:42There is a majority that support the ceasefire in Gaza and the return of the hostages.

02:49But many of them also will say when the hostages are back,

02:52they are not opposed to the resumption of the war,

02:57including if Israel withdraw with the Philadelphia corridor returning to this.

03:03I think there is quite a wider support war against Hezbollah

03:06because they don't see that there was any justification for Hezbollah to attack the north.

03:11There is no border dispute or territorial dispute between Israel and Lebanon as such.

03:19And 60,000 Israelis have been displaced.

03:22So they will see it as justification.

03:24Many times, while there are causes that you can understand why Israel tried to break

03:31what Iran is called the ring of fire around it,

03:34is the way that it conducts it,

03:36which exact heavy price from civilians,

03:39and be that there is no strategic political endgame in sight.

03:44Indeed, Mr Yossi Merkelberg, I'm being told we'll have to leave it there.

03:48But thanks so much for giving us your time and your insight on the situation.

03:51Mr Merkel there from Chatham House joining us.

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