Among other things, we discussed a proposal he had for dealing with the densely population Gaza Strip — a plan for an expanded Gaza, created in part by Egypt allocating a very small proportion of the vast Sinai Peninsula. Eiland sketched me a map of the envisaged territorial adjustments, with lines showing tunnels and pipelines and trade routes emerging from the Gulf and crossing Israel and Gaza to the sea — a blueprint for regional cooperation.
Rather atypically, I framed it, and hung it on a wall at home. It’s still there now. But the lines have faded to near-invisibility. Quite the metaphor for the descent into our current horrific reality — as triggered by Hamas’s October 7 invasion, a stalled war in Gaza, Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone onslaught, and the acute dilemma now facing an Israeli government, hamstrung by internal mistrust, regarding whether, when and how to hit back at the Islamic Republic.
Should Israel hold its fire, and risk a deepened perception of weakness? Should Israel strike back directly at Iran, and risk an escalation into regional or even world war? What are the options in between? How should the United States’ pleas for wisdom and strategic thinking translate into action?
Over the past six months, Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Eiland has been one of the prominent ex-generals dispensing advice from Israel’s television studios. If that fading map exemplified an optimistic potential path ahead all those years ago, the early post-October 7 days saw Eiland bleakly castigating the government and defense establishment for what he believed was a fundamentally misguided war strategy. Israel’s leaders, he declared, had failed to recognize Hamas’s Gaza as a full-on terror state, with its citizens largely complicit, and thus the reliance on military pressure alone to destroy Hamas and get back the hostages was destined for failure.
In a telephone interview on Monday night, Eiland set out his recommended — and extremely dramatic — approach for Gaza, and for dealing with the weekend’s Iran assault, and much more besides. He spoke in his characteristic rapid-fire Hebrew. This translated transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity. READ MORE
