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Israel cannot achieve a complete victory over Hamas as long as the international community pressures it on humanitarian grounds, an Israeli expert on the Middle East, reserve colonel Moshe Elad, said in an interview with Maariv, The Jerusalem Post reports.
Against the backdrop of the protracted war in Gaza, Elad analyses historical examples of the dismantling of terrorist organisations. And among the four well-known cases – the Black Hundred in the Russian Empire, the Shining Path in Peru, the RAF in Germany, and the IRA in Ireland – he highlights a fifth, the most radical and silenced in the West: the destruction of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by Sri Lanka.
“What Sri Lanka did was a total victory – no Supreme Court and no B’Tselem. They simply destroyed the organisation,” Elad said.
The LTTE fought for the independence of northern Sri Lanka for 26 years and were the first in history to use suicide bombers, including women and children. From 2006 to 2009, the government launched a large-scale military campaign, while simultaneously blocking diaspora funding, using psychological operations, spies and tough diplomacy.
But the final victory came through total destruction – up to 70,000 civilians died, many of them in areas that were officially “safe”. Hospitals, camps, and shelters came under fire. The global response, despite calls for investigations, was extremely mild. Most Western countries did not want to put pressure on Sri Lanka, in particular because of its strategic location and support from China.
What does this mean for Israel?
According to Elad, Israel cannot act like Sri Lanka. The world condemns any harsh action – even sanctions are seen as a “humanitarian catastrophe”. And although Israel has repeatedly stated its goal of “eliminating Hamas,” international pressure deprives it of freedom of action.
“The world does not allow Israel to win this war to the end,” the expert states.
According to Elad, a total victory over Hamas is possible only in the absence of external pressure, as was the case in Sri Lanka. But the moral cost, reputational losses and current geopolitical conditions make such a scenario unlikely and extremely dangerous for Israel itself.
