Learning the Lessons of “Total Victory”

Avi Abelow | Meta | July 2, 2026

Nitzan Alon’s Attack on “Total Victory” Exposes the Left’s Defeatist Mentality – While Gal Hirsch Delivered Results

Almost three years into this grueling war, with our Iranian backed enemies devastated on every front, all the hostages miraculously returned home and rebuilding their lives, the political left in Israel refuses to give Prime Minister Netanyahu even a shred of recognition for these historic achievements—instead, they attack him with conscious, vicious, visceral hatred, as I personally witnessed last night when crowds booed him at the Maccabiah Games opening ceremony.

They blame him alone for the intelligence and IDF failures they themselves failed to warn about, while lionizing the former heads of intelligence and IDF like Ronen Bar, Haliva, and Halevi as heroes.

The latest attack on Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government comes from Nitzan Alon, who headed the Hostages and Missing Persons Directorate at the start of the war. Alon was appointed to this role as an internal IDF/military decision under Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi on October 8, 2023—not as a direct political appointment by the government or Netanyahu.

Perfectly timed for electioneering, Alon has now gone on the offensive, claiming just days ago that Netanyahu and his government refused “earlier, more comprehensive hostage deals” in the name of “total victory”—which he dismisses as a “falsehood” and an outright lie.

The backlash against Alon has been strong, and rightfully so.

One sentence from Israeli veteran journalist Amit Segal sums it up perfectly: “Nitzan Alon mocked ‘total victory’ today, but the deal he promoted would have brought total defeat.”

This is exactly the defeatist, losing, and dangerous outlook of the political left that we have seen throughout this war.

The political left loved Nitzan Alon, he was their man, their preferred voice in the system. He pushed an approach to the war in Gaza that deliberately avoided maximum military pressure on Hamas, all out of fear it might endanger some hostages. Regardless of the specific strategy for freeing the hostages, you do not endanger an entire nation of nine million by refusing to aggressively confront and defeat the enemy out of fear that it might harm some of the hostages.

The deals he pushed for would have meant Israel literally surrendering to Hamas’s demands, withdrawing from Gaza, and essentially guaranteeing the terror group’s survival in control of all of Gaza, all while waiting for the next October 7th. His approach followed the Biden administration approach, stopping the war at all costs to then push the two state solution.

On October 29, 2023—just three weeks into the war and only two days after the IDF launched its ground offensive in Gaza to defeat Hamas and free the hostages, the headline news was: “Biden pushes Mideast leaders to consider two-state solution after Israel-Hamas war ends.”

https://www.pbs.org/…/biden-pushes-mideast-leaders-to…

Thank God Netanyahu and his government refused to listen to Nitzan Alon.

what happened instead? Under a strategy of real strength and “total victory,” Israel achieved what many said was impossible: defeating Hamas on the battlefield, controlling most of Gaza, dismantling its capabilities, and bringing all the hostages home — the living and the fallen — without capitulating to Hamas as Nitzan Alon was pushing for.

The left’s hypocrisy is staggering. They praised Alon and his military pressure-avoiding approach. But when Netanyahu and and his right-wing government delivered actual results — conquering Rafah, securing the Philadelphi Corridor, eliminating key Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, and freeing the hostages — they still refuse to give credit.

Instead of acknowledging this unbelievable achievement of Netanyahu, they continue to hate Netanyahu and attack anyone who chose victory over surrender.

As Minister Bezalel Smotrich rightly pointed out: If we had followed Alon’s path, Hamas would be back on our borders, Gaza would be rebuilt without demilitarization, and we would be sitting ducks for the next massacre.

Instead, through hard fighting and heavy sacrifice, we control 70% of Gaza, Hamas is confined and on the path to dismantlement, and the south is safer.

The counter-critique hits hard: Alon’s policy prolonged the hostages’ suffering by restricting military pressure.

Alon and his people used to mark areas on the maps of the Gaza Strip as forbidden for IDF operations, because hostages were being held in those areas. In one of these cases, which was published by reporter Avishai Grinzaig on Israeli public radio, in the southern Gaza Strip, 12 IDF soldiers were killed after Hamas terrorists repeatedly emerged from a tunnel shaft that the military forbid to attack because a single hostage was located inside it.

These are the impossible dilemmas of war — but the facts show that maximum pressure, not endless concessions, ultimately brought our people home.

This is the clear divide: The political right understood that the only way to protect all Israelis — hostages and citizens alike — was to defeat Hamas, not appease it.

The left’s approach would have left us weaker, more vulnerable, and inviting the next catastrophe.

The left’s obsession with attacking Netanyahu, even after the successes in this war, reveals their true priorities.

They cannot admit that standing strong — refusing to surrender — worked. They prefer to rewrite history and push the same failed, defeatist mentality that has endangered us before.

As we continue to be bombarded with these defeatist headlines the Jewish/Israeli media, remember, Strength brings results. Capitulation invites more terror.

The path of “total victory” — pursued despite immense public and political pressure and criticism — delivered our hostages and advanced security. Let’s learn the lesson. Netanyahu deserves all the credit for refusing to break and withstanding the tremendous pressure and subversion of the political left during this war. He not only had to fight a ruthless jihadist enemy on the battlefield, but also contend with internal subversion from senior army generals and intelligence chiefs who pursued their own agendas and often ignored the directives of Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government. That critical story still needs to be fully told. My friend Erez Tadmor has documented much of it in his important new book, The Rebellion of the Generals, yes refusing to listen to government directive I a rebellion.

We must ensure that we never again fall for the dangerous illusions—or rather, the deadly delusions—of the political left. One would have thought that after the horrors of October 7 they would finally wake up, but instead they continue to act and speak as if Prime Minister Netanyahu and the religious right are a greater threat than our actual jihadi enemies.

The Jewish people in our ancestral homeland are strong when we choose sovereignty, security, and truth over weakness and illusions. With faith in the God of Israel, the resilience of our people, and the clear-eyed leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu—who refused to surrender and continues to work hard to deliver victory—we will prevail. Let’s choose correctly, with courage and conviction.

Strengthen your faith and don’t fall for the agenda driven lies and manipulation of the media. We got this!

Am Yisrael Chai.