Earlier this week I wrote a long article explaining why dealing with Gaza is such a difficult task, and describing a solution in general terms (short answer: a massive blow to force Hamas to disarm, followed by a “light” military occupation).
I thought that this time – after all, for once we have an American administration in our corner – it would be different, this time the IDF would follow through, and do more than just “mow the grass.” Bibi was talking tough, armored forces were poised at the border, and, after all we had just absorbed some 690 rockets, $14 million in damage, and four dead Israelis.
But I was wrong. We barely trimmed the weeds, with the IDF ordered to end the fighting before the Memorial Day and Independence Day celebrations this week, and the Eurovision song contest which will begin next Tuesday in Tel Aviv. In particular it is being reported that the IDF was forced to “give up on striking Hamas’ long range missile storage facilities,” which seems to me remarkably counter-productive if one wants to prevent disruption of events in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Some kind of ceasefire deal was reached, which probably means that Israel must facilitate the transfer of millions of dollars to Hamas from Qatar, and who knows what other concessions.
Government officials insisted that nothing was less important to their decisions than Eurovision. But of course, nothing was more important.
Bibi and the others are absolutely aching to present Israel as an advanced European or North American style country, a country where (perhaps unlike the Europe or America of today) the chance of terrorism or war is minuscule, and where we put on massively excessive spectacles like Eurovision as a matter of course.
This isn’t true. We are a small country that has been at war since 1948, where successive negligent governments have allowed dangerous terrorist proxies of our enemies to flourish on our borders, and where terrorism and flare-ups of violence happen on a regular basis. We are not quite the first-world country we aspire to be, either (you can see this in the poorer neighborhoods of our cites or the so-called “periphery”).
Do you get the feeling I think we have our priorities wrong? You’re right.
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad organization understand the reasons for our reluctance to engage with them: because we fear a wider multi-front war, because we don’t appear to have a satisfactory plan for Gaza if Hamas collapses, and because we don’t want to be embarrassed by terrorism during – or even aimed at – Eurovision. So they made their demands and we gave in. Call it extortion or call it jizya, but they got what they wanted.
The residents of Sderot and other communities near Gaza have been remarkably patient as this happens over and over. It has been going on for decades: the first rockets were launched at Sderot in 2001, and the attacks increased in frequency after Israel abandoned the Strip in 2005, and still more after the Hamas coup in 2007. Every few months the residents’ lives are massively disrupted. Their children – who have been insecure since birth – are suffering from PTSD. It’s remarkable that so few families have fled. How long can we expect them to be patient? Of course it is hard to get a fair price for a home in the region, so maybe many of them not only feel anxious, they feel trapped.
And the zone of conflict is growing as Hamas and Islamic Jihad improve their rockets and increase their range. It used to be only Sderot and the local kibbutzim and moshavim, and now it is as often Ashkelon, where two of the four deaths – murders – occurred this week. They have rockets that can reach Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, although there are fewer of them. Today.
The government tells us that yes, it’s terrible, especially for those who have lost family members, but it’s not existential. And look at how many people are killed every year in traffic accidents. Meanwhile there are so many reasons that nothing can be done now; but we have a plan and it will be implemented real soon.
No. Enough. The most basic obligation of a government under the social contract is to protect its citizens, and they aren’t doing it. Don’t tell me that it is impossible. Why are the barbarians of Hamas and Islamic Jihad able to outthink us, to put us in a trap that we can’t escape? Do we have the wrong generals? The wrong government? Are all the smart people in high-tech? Is the problem, as some say, that every commander must have a lawyer by his side? We are stronger, we have an air force that is qualitatively the best in the world, we have a fleet of drones, tanks, the best weapons in the world. Why can’t we fix this?
Well, here is one possible reason. It’s illustrated by this recent news item.
Tuesday night will begin Israel’s Memorial Day for 23,741 fallen soldiers and terror victims with a ceremony in Jerusalem. This is a deeply moving event for Israelis, since there are few families that have not lost a friend or family member to war or terrorism.
An organization called “Combatants for Peace” (CFP) organized an “Alternative Memorial Day” event in which both Israelis and Palestinians from the territories who lost relatives in the conflict will mourn them together. CFP is funded almost entirely by foreign contributions, from the American New Israel Fund, and German and Swiss groups.
The implication is that there’s no moral difference. Someone who is shot to death trying to stab a random Jew in the street is a victim of the conflict, just like the Jew he stabs. The Palestinian who is killed when he plows into people waiting at a bus stop deserves the same respect as the ones he murders.
Unsurprisingly, many Israelis find it obscene to equate fallen soldiers, police officers, and terror victims with the Palestinian terrorists that murdered them. PM Netanyahu rejected a request for entry permits to allow Palestinians to enter the country for the ceremony. He cited security reasons, but I suspect that he felt that national self-respect required it.
The Supreme Court, in response to a petition from CFP, overruled the PM and ordered the government to grant 100 permits.
The members of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad want to win. They want to kill Jews and eliminate the Jewish state. They want this with all their hearts.
Do we want to survive as much as they want to destroy us?
They want to win and for us to lose.
We want to win, but we don’t want them to lose.
Perhaps Vic YOU can explain to me how, once again, a BS “ceasefire” can be agreed upon WITHOUT bringing Hadar Goldin home. How can it be that whether it’s the allowance of hundreds of millions in cash to be transferred to our mortal enemies, the expansion of fishing territory, not to mention the continuing and incredibly foolish policy of supplying fuel and electricity, concessions are agreed to without Goldin being returned to his family and his country?
I am so sick and tired of Bibi’s penchant for talking big…..we are going to do this, we are going to do that….blah…blah…blah. For a decade plus now our leaders, both in politics and in the military, have more and more begun to sound like our neighbors, with the public saber-rattling and blustery threats. We used to do our work under the radar and let the results speak for themselves. Our cousins never knew what we were thinking. Now they simply can open up Yidiot or turn on channel 2.
It is simply unconscionable that ANY negotiations be started and/or ended without first and foremost the demand for his return. And if that has ever been a demand of ours and not acceded to, then WTF are we doing acquiescing to ANY agreement?
As an Israeli, as a combat veteran, and as a father to 4 proud Israelis who have served their country, I am embarrassed and enraged beyond words.
It is not only Bibi, but every POLITICIAN, no matter what party, in the nation of Yisrael. They are more worried about the views of Yisrael by the euro trash and the libotard American Jews/Gentile unbelievers than they are about the Hebrew people of Yisrael.
Vic, Excellent article. You are correct. Unfortunately this terrorism will not end until ALL the minions of islam, satan’s robots, have been destroyed. This will only happen when one event occurs: When the Messiah returns to defend Yisrael and Jerusalem as Yisrael will not be able to withstand the army of satan intent on destroying every last Hebrew and the nation of Yisrael. Until then, Jews and Christians will have to put up with the politician wars attempting to contain the cult of islam that are detrimental/destructive to both Jews and Christians.