After a military operation lasting more than seven weeks (!), the Israel Defense Forces still didn’t obliterate the five rocket launchers that caused national paralysis. This was because they were still searching for the telephone numbers of Arab families still in Gaza to protect the missile sites, to ask them nicely if they could please vacate the premises, as if they couldn’t hear the rockets firing over their heads, hour after hour…
Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry
1.
In a little more than two years, the first American president to publicly embrace the Moslem world and remove U.S. armed forces from the Middle East will complete his second and final term of office. While he may be departing from the White House at that time, the seeds of discord that he left behind in the region will take many years to uproot. The president of the United States who dreamed much about peace with the Moslems gave a warm endorsement to the Arab Spring – and the world has been trembling in fear ever since. It started like any other local revolution and it ended with the rise of the ISIS terrorist organization, one of the most dangerous of its kind ever encountered in the global war on terror.
It’s not that there wasn’t any insane radical Islamic terror before the earthquake we have experienced in the Middle East during recent years. Such cruelty and bloodthirstiness was already evident in the region eighty-five years ago during the pogroms of 1929, when the Arabs of Chevron and Tzfas slaughtered Jews with a merciless brutality that human beings cannot fathom. However, in later years, these murderous organizations have not dared to carry out similar massacres, not because they have quenched their thirst for blood, but because they are being suppressed by authorities far stronger or tyrannical than they are. As soon as the dam burst, and someone thought that you can fight Islamic terror through democracy, flowers, and love, the terrorist madness reached a new low in its cruelty. Again, this was not because someone had changed his outlook, rather due to the realization that it was now possible.
The world has been closely following the genocidal activities of the brutal ISIS terrorist organization, failing to understand that the only difference between ISIS and Hamas is the latter’s greater expertise on how to get its picture taken. Those sanctimonious know-it-alls who have been so shocked by ISIS’ campaign of slaughter in Syria and Iraq are the same ones who cry out against every missile the IDF fires at Gaza in their misguided objective of saving enemy lives.
This is also what happened with our Arab neighbors. Anyone who thinks that success in war is measured by whether or not we managed to destroy the enemy’s military forces – is making a mistake. Our successes in the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War were not because the IDF had annihilated the Arab armies, but because they had terrified them. They absorbed some frighteningly painful blows and they understood that it’s not smart to mess around with us. Yet, while the Syrians have rehabilitated their army, there still remains a magnificent aura of absolute quiet along the border with the Golan Heights. Ironically, the border with the strongest Arab army in the Middle East, whose people hate us more than any other Arab neighbor, is by far the quietest – lasting now for decades.
Then comes along the smiling Mr. Barack Hussein Obama and with one fell swoop he restored the color to the cheeks of radical Islam. It would seem that the schools and institutes on fighting terror will be debating for years over the cataclysmic errors made by the dazzling silver-tongued former community organizer from Chicago. All he wanted was to be nice and pleasant. This is the same person to whom so many people in Israeli politics are pressuring the prime minister to listen and act according to his suggestions on surrendering to the terrorists.
2.
In the chronicles of the kings of Israel we learn about two kings who waged war against the Philistines – but only one emerged victorious. One was Shaul, the first king of Israel, who was blessed with the spirit of G-d and who rescued the Holy Ark from captivity. While Shaul was most exalted among people, a pious Jew with true fear of G-d, he failed to vanquish the Philistines in battle. The reason for this was his pity for the Philistines.
Even before his pity for the sheep of Amalek and his failure to fulfill G-d’s command to wipe out Amalek entirely, Shaul had mercy on the Philistines. He accepted the argument of Golyas, who claimed in the name of Jewish ethics that there is no reason to go out to war when thousands of people would be killed on both sides. Therefore, Golyas claimed that Shaul should send out one man from the camp of Israel to fight against him, and if their warrior would be killed, that would be a sign that the Philistines had been victorious. Shaul agreed, and he then searched for a suitable champion to fight Golyas instead of opening general hostilities. He promised that the man who defeated Golyas would receive much reward, since he [Shaul] had accepted Golyas’ claim that Jewish ethics rejected the taking of innocent lives.
Eventually, it was Dovid who went out to fight Golyas. After he felled the giant Philistine with a rock fired from his slingshot, Dovid asked Uriah HaChiti for the keys to Golyas’ vest in order to decapitate him. Why did Dovid have to cut off Golyas’ head after he had already killed him? To show the Philistines that he was prepared to wage war against them mercilessly without any unnecessary adherence to “moral principles.” He thereby succeeded in terrifying them and subsequently defeated them in battle.
Thus, we learn that the Jewish ethics of war – and the opposing argument – was already in existence back then. Last week, military commentator Alon Ben-David revealed that from the very start of the conflict, the cities of southern Eretz Yisroel and its hundreds of thousands of residents were being paralyzed by a mere five small rocket launchers. So, what would have been the problem to fire a few missiles to wipe these launchers out? Incredible as it may sound, it turns out that three of these launchers were located near a school and two more near a residential building that the IDF had failed to contact the families living there to request that they evacuate… This is the reason why hundreds of thousands of residents in the south woke up each morning to the horror of missile attacks and air-raid sirens, and why four-year old Daniel Tragerman was killed by mortar shrapnel when he failed to reach the bomb shelter in time.
If this wouldn’t have happened in Eretz Yisroel we wouldn’t have believed that it was true. Yet, after the conduct of the recent so-called war by the government of Israel, a.k.a. the wise men of Chelm, you can believe almost anything. When the Israel Defense Forces couldn’t reach these Arab families in Gaza to ask them to leave the area, the Jewish residents along the southern perimeter drifted between hope and despair, as we learned once again that it’s impossible to fight terrorism through methods of peace and appeasement. We should leave such creative and subtle methods to far less hazardous concerns and annihilate the terrorists with full force, down to the very last one.
3.
Eight years ago, after the Second Lebanon War, throngs went out into the streets demanding the resignation of then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, after one hundred and ten IDF soldiers were killed during that conflict. To our great regret, after sixty-four soldiers and six civilians were killed during Operation “Protective Edge,” the public at-large still remains quiescent, incapable of understanding that those entrusted with the task of fighting this war were simply afraid to win. After a military operation lasting more than seven weeks (!), the Israel Defense Forces were unable to destroy the rocket launchers. This was because they were still searching for the telephone numbers of Arab families, still in Gaza to protect the missile sites, to ask them nicely if they could please vacate the premises, as if they couldn’t hear the rockets firing over their heads, hour after hour, and they don’t understand that their houses are potential bombing targets.
Apparently, it was unclear to the IDF whether those living in the immediate vicinity of terrorist rocket launchers really understood that their lives would be in danger when IDF missiles bombed the launch sites. This fact reveals how perverted the ethics of Israeli policymakers really are. They simply accept as a given the idea that not every launcher automatically becomes a military objective – regardless of where it might be located.
During the First Lebanon War, the Rebbe cried out about the person who entered an operating room and told them in fright to stop the surgery when he saw the first drop of blood. It would appear that the Rebbe’s words were guided by his amazing ruach ha’kodesh, as they pertain to the situation in which we find ourselves today as well. The army moved two kilometers toward the neighborhoods surrounding Gaza, but they would not enter Gaza itself. In the meantime, sixty-four of our finest fighting men, may G-d avenge their blood, were killed in action as the government prematurely halted the operation. Now, when we have to send our forces back – as we undoubtedly will – the lives of our soldiers will again be at risk.
In a sicha on Yud-Gimmel Tammuz 5742, at the height of the public storm surrounding Operation “Peace for the Galilee” (the First Lebanon War), the Rebbe incisively analyzed the international debate with the following explanation: “To what is this comparable? To a fearful person who enters an operating room and sees the doctors starting to do surgery on someone who is ill. As soon as he sees the first drops of blood, he begins to plead with the doctors to stop the operation, wait until the wound heals, and then they can continue the surgery… How can you possibly operate when the sick person’s blood has been spilled? It should be obvious to anyone what the doctors would say to such an idea!
“Similarly, we find regarding the security situation of millions of Jews living in Eretz HaKodesh. After they start one operation, a ‘frightened and softhearted person’ comes along and asks them to stop in the middle of the operation because they have to hold a meeting, determine everyone’s opinion, and request the advice of the nations of the world… And so it occurred during the second and the third operation. Now, we are already in the middle of the fourth operation, and there are still those who think that in order to achieve peace, it’s better to avoid lifesaving treatment and stop in the middle of the operation – after suffering hundreds of casualties!
“How is it possible to take such chances regarding millions of Jews? They’ve already seen three times that such conduct causes calamitous results! And as mentioned, this same situation keeps repeating itself! Of course, it isn’t exactly by a hundred percent, but the idea is close enough. These people persistently contend that we can’t ignore the international pressure, nor can we conduct ourselves as ‘a nation that will dwell alone,’ suggesting that this is the way to bring peace, justice, and integrity to the region!”