The former head of the General Security Services (Shin Bet), Avi Dichter, doesn’t see any other solution except re-conquering the Gaza Strip. “In recent years, residents in the south wake up each day to an uncertain reality. Will missiles fall today or not? Will there be an air-raid siren or not?” he says. “If that isn’t playing roulette, I don’t know what is…”
Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry
1.
What will be the next stage of Operation Protective Edge? Commentators are asking questions in a very concerned tone. Most of them believe that the end result must be a diplomatic ceasefire – until the next round of hostilities. However, is there another option? Is there a way to prevent another war of this type in the future? We went down this very route six years ago during Operation Cast Lead. Yet, everything we accomplished then has been wiped out; here we are again in Gaza. Nevertheless, most of those who set the tone in Eretz Yisroel still refuse to look squarely at the reality of the situation, as they continue to offer the same tired old solutions that have been offered for the past twenty years since the signing of the Oslo Accords. They have never really changed the situation; another ceasefire with a vicious terrorist organization, eventually leading to the outbreak of yet another violent war at the cost of more Jewish blood. When will they understand that you can never defeat these insane extremist Islamic terrorists on the diplomatic front?
While the media doesn’t like to talk about this, there are leading figures within the defense community who speak openly about re-conquering the Gaza Strip. For example, the former head of the General Security Services (Shin Bet), Mr. Avi Dichter, lived with the situation in Gaza for decades, back when Israeli security officials walked through the streets there and came to know every road and alley. According to Mr. Dichter, there is no alternative to re-occupying the territory we abandoned nine years ago. This is also the position of Gen. Avi Mizrachi, IDF commander in Yehuda and Shomron twelve years ago during Operation “Defensive Shield.” They argue that we have to occupy Gaza for a minimum of two years to complete the job. Otherwise, we’ll be back every year and a half facing the same predicament.
Almost no one in the state-run Israeli media airs these views. The backing once given to a prime minister in times of war has been replaced with virtually daily calls for military operations to cease. Hardly anyone remembers the fourteen years of hardship endured by the residents of southern Eretz Yisroel. Six years after the IDF left Gaza as stipulated in the Oslo Accords, Kassam rockets started falling throughout the region. Fourteen years have passed since then, and we’ve had three military operations, thousands of missiles, numerous dead and wounded, and millions of Jews living in fear. Based on the current reality of daily missile attacks, there is presently no security for eighty percent of the country’s citizens.
This is the reason why the former head of the General Security Services doesn’t see any other solution except re-conquering the Gaza Strip. “In recent years, residents in the south wake up each day to an uncertain reality. Will missiles fall today or not? Will there be an air-raid siren or not?” says Avi Dichter. “If that isn’t playing roulette, I don’t know what is…”
2.
During this war we have seen open and revealed miracles. Out of more than 1,500 missiles that have fallen in Israeli territory, only ten percent were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system. The overwhelming majority of the Kassam rockets simply landed in open areas. While everyone has expressed gratitude to “Iron Dome” for neutralizing this ten percent of the missiles, first and foremost, we must give thanks to Alm-ghty G-d for neutralizing hundreds of rockets, causing them to fall in open areas and saving the Jewish people from untold civilian casualties.
It’s true that we have also sustained many losses in this battle. The hearts of all of us are with the families of those killed al Kiddush Hashem during this obligatory war to protect the People of Israel. However, we must not allow these painful sacrifices to cause us to forget the great miracles experienced in this conflict. There’s no other place in the world where hundreds of rockets fall within range of all of its major cities, yet virtually all of the missiles land far from their designated target. This is the Hand of G-d; there can be no other explanation.
Even the diversion of the world’s attention away from the events in Gaza is a miracle unto itself. On the very day that the IDF’s ground offensive commenced, Ukrainian separatists fired a surface-to-air missile on a Malaysian airliner, killing nearly three hundred innocent passengers and crew, and the whole world has been preoccupied with this tragedy ever since. Instead of news reports opening with Israeli military operations against Hamas, the top story usually centers on developments regarding the airline disaster. At first, no one knew the cause of this calamity. However, with each passing day, more facts have been revealed on the extent of this human catastrophe. From the IDF’s point of view, the timing couldn’t have been better for taking action in the field.
During the first Lebanon war, a.k.a. Operation Peace for the Galilee, the Rebbe spoke about how then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan had chosen that particular time to take a ten-day vacation. This would enable the Israeli army to take whatever steps were necessary, without international pressure. The Rebbe explained that this was an actual miracle that gave the Jewish People an opportunity to restore security to their northern border. This is also what’s going on now: The world has given the Israel Defense Forces a free hand to clean terrorism out of Gaza, without the BBC and without CNN interfering.
3.
Last week, an interesting tidbit of information came to light: Since the start of Operation Protective Edge, more than one thousand Syrian civilians have been murdered in the internal fighting in Syria and several hundred more have met a similar fate in other Arab countries. Even in Egypt, a country with one of the Middle East’s more stable Arab regimes, about thirty civilians were killed due to clashes with the authorities. These facts reveal the absurdity of the charges made in the international community, which has raised an outcry against the IDF for its alleged slaughter of innocent people during the current military operations.
However, this isn’t just a series of riotous protests lodged by nations overseas. We also hear voices of discontent from within – “fifth columnists” among our own ranks. The weekly demonstrations in Tel Aviv against IDF soldiers have already become a tool of actual cooperation with the terrorist organizations, thereby providing aid and comfort to the enemy in Gaza. We’re not just talking about the delusionary Neturei Karta, who stand before the world and express their support for the terrorists fighting the Zionist forces. These are the Tel Aviv bourgeoisie, those who feel closer with the Arabs than with their own people.
This third generation of “Israelism” considers Jewish culture almost foreign to them. Thus, since Judaism had been virtually non-existent in their lives from childhood, the degree of assimilation merely intensifies. Many of them no longer wish to be patriots fighting to protect the Jewish People, and there is even a small group of them who actively identify with the terrorists. This is the crime and its punishment, for anyone who distances the Jewish People from their Judaism cannot be surprised when he is eventually expelled from those values with which he tried to replace the eternal principles of Am Yisroel. They have no faith in the uniqueness and eternal nature of the Jewish People, and it should come as no surprise that there are people in Eretz Yisroel who associate with our enemies and even salute them. Anyone who has attempted to invent a new form of religion here quickly discovers that there is no substitute for Yiddishkait. If we want to remain in Eretz HaKodesh, there can be only one justifiable reason: We are Jews.
A journalist who calls Israel Air Force pilots “murderers” is simply blind to what’s happening on the ground. For fourteen years, Arab terrorists have been firing their missiles on the residents of southern Eretz Yisroel. All reasonable methods have been tried, including two limited military operations in recent years, in an effort to strike a blow to the Gaza terrorist gangsters. However, all this has been for naught, and the local Gaza administration, i.e., Hamas, continues to fire rockets on Israeli cities without any rational explanation – the murder of innocent civilians for its own sake. In contrast, even when air force pilots are sent in to bomb terrorist headquarters, this is only done three days after calling upon local Arab residents to leave their homes, warning them that the area is about to be bombed.
Then, if any “innocent” civilians remain, they are solely responsible for the ensuing consequences of possible bodily harm or even death. There’s only one real reason why people are still in these areas, and it’s not because they are “innocent.” The facts are that Hamas uses women and children to protect its headquarters. They send their children to be killed in order to shield the rocket launchers, and when they actually get killed, they scream that the IDF is harming children.
4.
During times of war, the Jewish People reveal their true beauty and glory. In recent weeks we have seen extraordinarily powerful displays of faith and determination. It began during the long fortnight of constant prayers for the three boys kidnapped in Gush Etzion and it has continued for the duration of the current military operations. This includes expressions of tremendous Jewish unity. Last week, nearly thirty thousand people attended the funeral of IDF Corporal Max Steinberg Hy”d, a “lone soldier” and native of Los Angeles, killed on the battlefield in Gaza. No one in Eretz Yisroel knew him, but everyone came to honor him. It seems that the entire Jewish People has been crying with the soldiers.
Even the prime minister was quoted last week declaring the slogan, “The eternal people are not afraid of a long journey.” It’s quite ironic that he specifically chose the slogan of those who opposed the Gush Katif expulsion, a policy decision that he supported in full. Nevertheless, it was quite appropriate that Mr. Netanyahu understands the power and fortitude of the Jewish People during this critical hour.
No one who has seen the films documenting IDF soldiers returning from their duties in Gaza could avoid wiping away a tear. They had just come back after fifty or sixty hours of fighting, and they were filled with tremendous motivation on behalf of the People of Israel. With each return, the picture was the same: Hundreds of soldiers dancing as they sang, “We are believers, sons of believers,” and crying, “Am Yisroel Chai.” This is a strength and fortitude possessed by no other army or people in the world. This is a people with a deep connection to its eternal roots for thousands of years in the face of constant threats, from within and without. Indeed, the eternal people are not afraid of a long journey.