FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM “The northern Gaza Strip is under control. Eight thousand Hamas men died. Tunnels, terrorist bunkers, weapons depots, rocket launch pads: a lot is destroyed. We can start recalling some soldiers.”
It is the first time in three months, and Herzi Halevi, IDF general, says the words with a certain solemnity: Five brigades, two of which are reservists, will leave the Gaza Strip. A “significant troop reduction.” The beginning of the end? Far from it: “The goals of this war are longer fights,” explains military spokesman Daniel Hagari, “and we are organizing ourselves appropriately.” We have to manage the distribution of forces on the ground in a complex way and we have to pay attention to the reservists and the economy: the reservist units turn this around Return home this week, knowing full well that the war continues and we will need them in 2024 too. .
Everyone at home, but not too many. A few thousand of the 300,000 recalled in recent months are backpackers. The 14th and 551st Brigades. The fight against Hamas is expected to last “at least another six months” and a replacement is necessary. American pressure on Israel to reduce the intensity of attacks has something to do with it. But also those of Israeli families, those who have a business, those who have to do a job and are in conflict. Now IDF leaders are promising fewer bombs in northern Gaza, now destroyed and “retaken” by Hamas, giving reservists waiting for replacements some breathing room.
And then the economy. The war also hits a country accustomed to mobilization. It is estimated that the offensive will cost $ 13 billion in living costs in 2024, not counting the rest: for the first time in four years, the Bank of Israel adjusts the interest rate (from 4.75 to 4.5%) and feels significant economic consequences “on employment, inflation and growth.
An inevitable step was therefore the recall of some reservists. Also to appease a place that has only suspended political contacts with Netanyahu. Yesterday evening the Supreme Court (8 votes to 7) rejected one of the most controversial provisions of the already controversial judicial reform. For months before October 7, almost daily protest demonstrations undermined the most right-wing government in the country's history and Netanyahu himself, the “Destroyer of Israel”, reducing his popularity to a minimum. Now the court rejected the reform's article on “reasonableness,” which sought to deprive judges of the right to decide on the decisions of the government or the Knesset. The ruling is unacceptable, the judges say, because it “excludes any judicial criticism” and would represent “a severe and unprecedented blow to the essential features of a democratic state.” The top judges have no doubts: “In exceptional and extreme cases where the government or the Knesset exceeds the limits,” they can annul a law. Protest Minister Jariv Lewin, who designed the reform, complains that it is a “demonstration of arrogance” on the part of the judiciary. For the anti-Bibi party, which now accuses him of war, it is just a demonstration of common sense.