Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Israel Must Finish the Job

Israel under attack (Times of Israel)
No one is happier with the settler movement than Hamas. I can only imagine the joy they felt when Israeli courts ordered Palestinian families who have been living in their East Jerusalem homes for decades - to hand those homes over to the extremist right wing religious Zionist settlers. 

Hamas owes them a huge debt of gratitude. Because they now have an excuse for once again attempting the achieve their goal of making Israel Jew free. And they are happy to kill every Jew living there as the means to that end. Which is mostly being done in the form of firing an unlimited supply of rockets indiscriminately into every part of Israel. Some parts of which contain Arab neighborhoods. 

Hamas doesn't care. Any Arab death they cause is all for the greater good. Anybody with an ounce of intelligence has to know that Hamas cares little about what happens to Arabs living under Israeli rule. They are just convenient pawns. 

Those rockets were no doubt supplied by Iran. Something they have been allowed to do with impunity in exchange for that disaterous nuclear deal. 1000s of rockets are flying all over Israel pointed in every direction at indiscriminate targets. 

Iran could not be happier. Hamas terrorists are the surrogates in their crusade to exterminate the Jewish people. Which they have been threatening to do ever since radical Islam took over that country back in the late 70s.

Adding to their joy is the fact that Israel is now forced to defend themselves. That has resulted in unavoidable Palestinian casualties in Gaza. Including children. They are happy about that because they can now accuse Israel of being baby killers. Images of Gaza residents crying bitterly over their lost loved ones plays very nicely into that narrative. 

They know how scenes like that will play in Peoria. And that it generates world sympathy for them as well as assigning blame to Israel. Even though Hamas purposely embeds themselves into the general population for exactly that purpose. It is pretty hard to target Hamas terrorist leadership without hurting civilians. Even though it is clear that Israel goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties.  

That is their game plan. As the late Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir once said, (paraphrasing) Peace will come  when they stop hating us more than they love their own children. 

Meanwhile the media goes out of its way to blame both sides. Refusing to even refer to Hamas as the terrorists the US state Department has labeled them. Instead they are called militants. Thus giving them in a more respectable image. And our so called European allies feel the same way if not worse - often placing the entire blame on Israel. 

While I give President Biden’s Secretary of State, Tony Blinken and other administration officials (who have used the same phraseology) credit for saying that Israel has a right to defend itself - they added some veiled criticism at Israel by saying that the Palestinians have a right to live in peace. I am waiting for the moment where Biden says Israel’s response is disproportionate and needs to show restraint. Telling  them to stop bombing targets in Gaza.  

I hope Israel is not deterred by world criticism. They will surely be condemned by the UN whose  raison d’etre is to blame Israel (read - the Jews) for everything that is wrong in the world. Kind of like Hitler did. Antisemitism looms large in the UN. I just hope the Biden administration has the moral courage to veto any UN Security Council resolution like thar. 

Biden should instead do the right thing and give Israel the green light to do whatever it takes to decimate Hamas. They need to finish the job this time. I believe that Benny Gantz, Israel’s Defense Minister, has promised to do exactly that. 

Israel is mobilizing its troops now. They have called up the reserves. I am pretty sure that there is unity about this in the Israeli government right now. Israel’s very existence is at stake. My only reservation (and it’s a big one) is that the young soldiers of the IDF will need to put their lives at great risk once again in service of protecting their country. Some of those brave young men may - God forbid - never come back! Some may sustain serious injuries. Some of those inquiries might be permanent. May God protect them all! 

In that vein we must all pray for the safety of Israel’s soldiers. At a minimum saying the Misheberach for the IDF authored by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate - after the reading of the Torah.  In my view, all of Klal Yisroel should be asking for God’s mercy in exactly the same way. We need to pierce the gates of heaven and ask God to keep our people safe. These who fail to do so for political reasons are in my view shirking their responsibility to Klal Yisroel by putting politics above the life of these soldiers. These young men should be seen as God’s agents in protecting His people.  

The sad thing about all this is that none of this ever had to happen. Israel never wanted to fight Palestinians. All they ever wanted is to live in peace with their neighbors. Had Hamas given even the slightest indication that they were willing to do that, and turned their focus inward by trying to build up Gaza when Sharon handed it over to them. 

Israel would have been happy to help them. They have no interest in having belligerent neighbors on their southern border. They would have preffered having peaceful relations. Had Hamas made those kinds of gestures, is there any doubt that Israel would not have jumped at the chance to help them?! 

But Hamas had no intention of living in peace with Israel. They immediately turned Gaza into a terrorist base with the sole purpose of getting rid of the Jews, destroying Israel, and then turning it into Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital. Anyone that doesn’t realize this isn’t paying attention. Meanwhile Hamas creates world sympathy for their plight - blaming Israel instead those really responsible - themselves! That is the truth.

It’s just too bad the world buys into their PR. Which is gobbled up by the left leaning media and our so-called European allies. Even some of our own politicians on the left have bought into that false narrative.  

I hope Israel has the determination to finish the job regardless of any world condemnation - even if it includes the US. Because at the end of the day the entire world will be better off. Deep down, I think even President Biden knows that.