After the agonizing weeks of the war in Gaza, a ceasefire has been declared. There is an expression here that whenever there is a ceasefire, it means the Israelis cease and the enemies fire, which is exactly what happened; less than 24 hours after the so-called ceasefire was declared, Hamas fired on Ashkelon. Thank G-d, no one was injured.
Israel is not exactly the most popular country in the world right now. But most of the world does agree that terrorism is intolerable. On the one hand, the world wept over the tragedy of Mumbai, London and 9-11, but on the other hand, Israel’s attack on terrorist targets in Gaza were decried as excessive. In my mind, it is like moaning over an illness but complaining when surgery is needed. How is a destruction of major terrorist networks, like Hamas, Al Quaida and Hezbollah going to be bloodless? The headlines reported that Israeli Defense Forces attacked a mosque and a school, but failed to mention that explosives were being hidden there on purpose to increase the number of civilian casualties and to make Israel look like an aggressor nation. I have seen many clips of Hamas firing with children just behind, at the side of or even in front of them. And how can this be doubted when they teach their own children to commit suicide and to be martyrs?
There is a lot of evidence, although it hasn’t been often reported, that the Hamas leader whose 11 children died in the attack was warned ahead of time to get his wife and children to safety. One of his surviving children, when interviewed, told the press freely that their father taught them to seek death as martyrs to blacken the name of Israel; they could have run to safety, but they gave their lives for the sake of spin and PR.
What I don’t understand was that our troops were only a hair’s breadth from completely dismantling Hamas and were told to pull back. Something is fishy, but I’m not quite sure what. Did they pull back from their mission because of international pressure? But international pressure was there during the entire conflict. Just a bit longer, and they could have put Hamas out of business. I would hate to think that all of those people were killed or injured only to leave the seeds of another war behind, G-d forbid.
And for those who wonder why the Israeli “right wing” is hesitant to give up on “settlements”…keep in mind Gaza just three years ago was an Israeli “settlement” which was devoted to growing insect-free produce for the entire country. After a unilateral Israeli withdrawal of its 9,000 citizens from Gaza, Hamas, in a short period of time, built up its Hamas headquarters in Gaza and fired rockets daily into Sderot. (the rocket attacks actually preceded the Gaza expulsion, but the government went ahead with the ill-advised policy anyway.)
So the next time I am asked why Israel may be reluctant to give away land, I will answer “Gaza under the Israelis produced bug-free lettuce and tomatoes. When we gave it away, Gaza became the headquarters of terrorism and death-seekers.”
So am I a radical, as my brother thinks I am, for not wanting Israel to concede another inch of territory G-d gave us as an inheritance? Does it cause peace or does it cause war? Look at Gaza, how Hamas grew there instead of Israeli produce, and the answer is clear.