by Menachem Rahat, INN, translated by Hillel Fendel.
1. The cold-blooded
murder two weeks ago of the six innocent Israeli captives in the tunnels of
Gaza by the monsters of Hamas has, most unfortunately, passed without a
sufficient Israeli response. The response should have been, and still can be,
something that will prove to the Gazans, and to Arabs in the entire region,
that the spilling of Jewish blood comes at a price. This is now the time for
emergency military orders to burn whatever remains of Gaza and turn it into a
pile of ruins. Only in this way will the Arab world learn that Jewish blood is
far from cheap.
The time has come to
teach the new Nazis of our generation that nothing will hold us back, and that
our response to their cruelty will be disproportionate. We must renew the
Israel deterrence, transmitting the unmistakable message that there is no place
for Hamas under the sun – and as they seek to kill us, we will wipe them out
from under the sun. The barbarous atrocities of Oct. 2023, and the more recent
cruel shots to the heads of the six young hostages, followed by six more
murders – of three policemen near Hevron and three guards at the Allenby
Crossing – prove that Hamas and allies are a malignant cancer that must be
uprooted before they take root in the rest of the enlightened world.
As such, there is no
room for any kind of agreement with them, temporary or otherwise. Cancers must
be eradicated, before they grow and spread – and it is now clear that there
will never be quiet as long as even one Hamas member continues to exist. It's
either them or us.
2. The Torah portion of
this past week began with: "Judges and policemen you must place
throughout your gates… and they must judge the people with justice."
It is a Torah commandment to carry out justice – and this is exactly what the
proposed campaign to wipe out all traces of Hamas, Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad
seeks to do. Anything that threatens the lives of the masses must be exterminated,
as part of the Torah's charge to pursue justice.
But this must be done by
judges who are themselves just, and by a judicial establishment that itself
runs according to law. Israel's justice system, at present, leaves something to
be desired in various areas, insulting sometimes the public intelligence,
sometimes the law, and sometimes simple logic.
For instance, a few days
ago we were witness to a strangely crooked phenomenon that casts a shadow upon
the entire judicial establishment – even though it involves a judge who is now
retired. Former Justice Sarah Haviv was filmed, with her clear knowledge and
consent, working hard to tear down a large poster of photos of fallen IDF
soldiers. The poster had been placed by members of the Gvurah Forum, who have
lost family members in the course of the war against Hamas and who believe that
the best way to return the captives home is by continuing the war against
Hamas. Judge Haviv does not agree, and this was a good enough reason for her to
act with violence and take the law into her own hands. As she told the
cameraman with smug confidence, "The pictures are there illegally… We'll
meet in court."
In a letter to the
Israeli Bar Association requesting that Haviv's license to practice law be
revoked, a bereaved father and Gvurah Forum member wrote: "What she did is
comparable to walking into a cemetery and uprooting the gravestones of IDF
soldiers. The pictures of fallen IDF soldiers that are posted throughout the
country are living monuments to those who paid with their lives so that we can
continue to live here."
3. Israel Must Win!
As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu explained so well this week, the latest Hamas
demand is for a total IDF withdrawal from all of Gaza, including the Smuggling route (AKA the Philadelphi route) between Gaza and Egypt – but under no circumstances can
Israel afford to leave the Smuggling route. This is precisely the route where still today
exist tens of tunnels, through which arms, explosives and rockets are smuggled
to Hamas. If Israel wants to win this war – and it must!! [as former US Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo said this week, www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-819431] – the only way to do so is by holding onto the Smuggling route for
at least as long as it takes to destroy every last tunnel there. This, despite
the hateful accusations by those who hate Netanyahu that he cares only for his
political needs.
4. The dispute regarding the Smuggling route has not evaded the eyes of the soldiers battling in Gaza.
These continue their tireless efforts to locate the enemy's tunnels and
weaponry, and to find terrorists disguised as innocent citizens (sometimes as
women). One of the soldiers sent an unsigned post in which he explained:
"The
left is engaged in cheap demagoguery, as if a simple road is more important
than the hostages' lives. So permit me to explain: Yes, the Smuggling route is more
important than the hostages – and more than all of us. More than the Bibas
children, and more than me and my entire battalion that has been fighting in
Gaza since the beginning of the war. It is more important than all the
thousands of soldiers who have been battling and warring with all they've got
against a cruel enemy for nearly a year. The Smuggling route is that important, because
it is through the Smuggling route that Hamas is able to arm its fighters with rockets,
bombs, and explosives. The entire top command knows this, but for some reason
what is leaked to the press is only the "correct" opinion, which is,
"Don't worry, everything will be fine, we'll leave the Smuggling route and come
back whenever we want." That's totally false! Every 100 meters, give or
take, there is a tunnel that crosses under the border, through which tons of
equipment for the terrorists come in – which is what enabled Oct. 7th.
If we leave it for one day, it means a death sentence for additional thousands
of Israelis."
How sad it is that
simple soldiers on the battlefield understand what thousands of relatives of
hostages, and others, can't seem to overcome their emotions enough to
understand. And by the way, the soldier didn't even mention that if we leave the Smuggling route for even one day, some of those very hostages are liable to be
taken under that very route to Egypt and from there to the Nazis of Iran. Are
there any words for such a frightening prospect?
The views expressed herein
are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect those of our
organization.