My heart is breaking. What I surmised yesterday, but was afraid to write has turned out to be true. I have never wanted to be wrong more than I do this morning. But I can’t pretend that “it will be OK,” as Israelis like to say.
The IDF has been ready for some time to begin the operation to eliminate Hamas from Gaza. The plans were made long ago, and updated regularly. Hundreds of thousands of reservists have left their jobs and families, at great expense to the government. The tanks are poised near the border. Why aren’t they moving?
The reason is that they have been ordered not to by the Americans. Whether or not they planned it, Hamas struck gold when some twelve Americans and ten British subjects were included among the roughly 200 hostages that were carried back to Gaza by the terrorists. Now negotiations are taking place, brokered by the despicable Qatari regime, to obtain their release. The demonic Hamas have released two American women (for what in return?) to prove that a deal is possible.
I’m not surprised and I’m not criticizing the US president and British PM for trying to protect their people. That is the top job of a government – a job, incidentally, that ours has been failing to do for some time. But that’s another story.
Now our government has a different job. This is our last chance, after the disasters of Oslo, the withdrawal from Gaza, the Second Lebanon War, the Shalit trade, the ongoing loss of Area C, and countless other losses and humiliations, to end our slide to destruction. If Hamas is not ripped out of Gaza by its roots, the immediate result will be the loss of the northern and southern parts of our country (who would live there?) and the evaporation of any honor and deterrence that the State of Israel still has. And then there will be no peace agreement with Saudi Arabia, no hope of preventing a nuclear Iran, and no possibility of obtaining sovereignty in the strategic hill country and the Jordan Valley. We are suffering the death by a thousand cuts, and today the knife is poised over a vital artery. We are at the point of no return.
Israel today has no choice but to invade Gaza and wipe out every trace of the poison that poured out of it two weeks ago today. Otherwise, we are finished here. And if we are finished, the Jewish people are finished too, perhaps for another 2000 years or perhaps forever.
The situation of the hostages, American, British, and Israeli, is horrific. You may ask: would I say the same thing if my children were among them? Of course not, because I am only human. But that doesn’t make me wrong.
Maybe there is some magic by which the IDF can effect an Entebbe-like rescue. Who knows? I’m sure the IDF is trying mightily right now to locate them. If we invade now we may lose some or all of them, and if there is hope of rescue, then perhaps we can delay a few days longer. Of course, we have already lost 1400. And every day the international pressure not to invade, thanks to the media’s embrace of Hamas lies about its suffering civilians, is growing, along with the vicious antisemitism that our humiliation feeds.
My heart is breaking. But I say to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, and the Chief of Staff: do it. Give the order to start the tanks, to open fire with the artillery, to bomb every military target (even if it is called a “school” or a “hospital” or if it is the property of the UN). Do not allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, force Egypt to open the Rafah crossing, and let the world community express its love for the Gazan civilians there, in the northern Sinai. Make the campaign as short as possible and as brutal as necessary.
Show the world: when we said “never again,” we meant it.
Victor,
As we’ve moved forward in time from 22 Tishrei without – thus far – any appreciable, large-scale, concerted, openly (and intentionally) visible effort to destroy Hamas and restore Israeli deterrence, power, and full sovereignty in the South – on real and especially symbolic levels – I’ve gradually; sadly come to the same “place” as you.
For any small nation-state in a similar situation, the implications could be perilous.
For the Jewish nation-state and the Jewish people (always effectively synonymous), if nothing changes, the long-term implications will be dire.
Your post brings with it a theme; a question; a conundrum, that I can’t resolve.
Namely, are those foreign policy decisions of the Israeli government that have been so utterly detrimental to the country – not just thus far in October of 2023, but really it seems since Israel’s re-establishment in 1948 … obviously here thinking of the Oslo Accords, but too many others to mention in this “talk-back” … solely attributable to persuasion, pressure, or actual threats (implied or explicit) by Israel’s ostensible “friends”, like Uncle Laban? Persuasion, pressure, or threats, which no Israeli government can really defy?
Or, are such decisions making solely “internal” to Israel’s government?
Or, is the answer somewhere in between?
Well, I can’t add more to what you’ve so clearly and passionately expressed.
So instead, I’ll let Nathan Alterman speak for me – and I think, not just me?! – in his poem, “Thus Satan Said”.
(Maybe the answer is here?)
“How will I overcome
this one who is under siege?
He possesses bravery, ingenuity,
weapons of war and resourcefulness.”
And he said: “I’ll not sap his strength,
Nor fill his heart with cowardice,
nor overwhelm him with discouragement
As in days gone by.
I will only do this:
I will cast a shadow of dullness over his mind
until he forgets that justice is with him.”
__________
This is what the Satan said and it was as if
the heavens trembled in fear
as they saw him rise
to execute his plan.
Go for it! Justice & security & self-defence & logic demands it! The media will continue to embrace Hamas, and condemn Israel, no matter what happens in Gaza. Do not listen to MSM!
If Israel capitulates, it deserves to disappear.
A country incapable of defending itself, isn’t long for this world.
I’m increasingly skeptical the ground operation will ever happen.
Israel has already given into US demands to allow aid to Hamas.
If Jews aren’t going to do what’s necessary to survive, they might as well pack it in and leave.
We are as they say, at the fork in the road here.
FYI: “US seeks delay of Israeli ground incursion for more time for hostage talks”
(https://www.aol.com/news/us-seeks-delay-israeli-ground-151627164.html)
11:16 AM 10/22/23
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Victor: In your post of October 16, you stated: “Certainly the Americans are still committed to the idea of a Palestinian state in the territories, even if they have learned that Hamas – at least by that name – can’t be part of it. Moti Kedar said that the top leadership of our military establishment “speak American, not Hebrew.” That, too, will have to change.”
Can you recommend any opinion pieces or essays by Moti Kedar?
Google Mordechai Kedar, and search YouTube for him. He has an excellent YouTube channel in Hebrew which is here:
https://www.youtube.com/@DrMordechaiKedarHebrew
Unfortunately there is much less available in English.