Israeli Concessions and International Legitimacy

by Dr. Erez Shoshani, International Relations Lecturer at Ruppin Academic Center, translated by Hillel Fendel.

The public discourse around the recently-released anti-Israel movie NAZA (Collateral Damage) is a distraction from the very root of the problem that the movie expresses.

That is, the discussion should not be whether the citizenship of the Israeli directors should be revoked, or whether they should rather be praised for interviewing 24 anonymous Israeli military and intelligence personnel who say they were involved in operations in Gaza and accuse the IDF of apathy to "collateral" civilian deaths there.

Rather, this very debate shows the consequences of the ongoing Israeli misconception that our concessions, withdrawals and gestures lead to international legitimacy for our attempts to defend ourselves.

This mistake has accompanied us for decades. For instance, when the Knesset was presented with the proposed unilateral withdrawal from Gaza (the Disengagement) in October 2004, the proponents maintained strongly that it would lead to international support for any Israeli self-defense actions that we might need to take as a result.

This of course did not happen. What should have been obvious at the time, but is certainly obvious now, is that there is no way that a democracy such as Israel can deal with cruel terrorists who use their own populace as human shields, without facing acute international criticism. Already in 2009, the UN's Goldstone Report [later largely retracted by its lead author, to no avail] accused Israel of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead a year earlier. It stated that actions such as dropping warning pamphlets in advance of an attack, and other similar warnings, are not sufficient prior to anti-terrorist attacks if civilians will be hurt, and that such offensives must therefore not be carried out.

Furthermore, given that the world is given to the shackles of systemic anti-Semitism, as reflected time and again in Anti-Defamation League surveys, it should have been clear to all that no withdrawal or other Israeli peace gesture would legitimize in international eyes any Israeli military action resulting in significant numbers of civilian casualties.

Accusations of Israeli genocide in Gaza became rampant throughout the world following the Oct. 7th Hamas massacre of over 1,200 Israeli civilians – despite documented findings by many leading research institutes in Israel and around the world that totally negate these conclusions.

In short, the approach by which we seek to arouse support for our actions to wipe out our terrorist enemies by highlighting our attempts to make peace, has been shown to be a failure. The Oslo Agreements signed nearly 35 years ago, the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, and the Disengagement, all show that these withdrawals do not build our esteem in international eyes.

Quite on the contrary. They provide a backwind on steroids for Palestinian terrorism against Israel, culminating with the massacre of Oct. 7, 2003. And then, when Israel takes counter-action to protect its citizens, the result is not international acceptance, but rather accusations of genocide and the employment of sanctions.

Israelis who continue to insist even now that Israel must withdraw from Gaza, and other areas, are simply ignoring the historic reality of recent decades. 

Israeli Elections: The Losing Strategy of the Anti-Netanyahu "Change" Alliance

by Michael Sparber, member of the Judea & Samaria forum, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Israel will be holding national elections three weeks from now. If the "Change" coalition – the alliance of parties ranging from the extreme left (Yair Golan) to the extreme right (Avigdor Lieberman) whose exclusive shared goal is to oust Binyamin Netanyahu – loses these elections, let them not complain that the nation was fooled, or is immature, or does not understand. If they lose, it's because they simply don't understand what the nation wants. 

It is the "Change" bloc itself that seems to be out of touch. It does not grasp that much of the nation feels that though the current government failed us (even if only partially, together with significant achievements), it still sees the alternative being offered to it as even worse. 

It's possible to be angry at Netanyahu, to demand that he take responsibility and even resign – without wanting to return to the very policies that brought us to where we are now.

The people who feel this way are precisely the public that the Change bloc is missing. They are those who want more determination and initiative on the part of the government, and less dependency on others; they are angry at the government for not finishing the job in Gaza as it promised to do. But the opposition hears only the anger, and is convinced that whoever is upset at Netanyahu will vote for them. 

I have news for them: That is not the case. 

Consider what the opposition is offering us. Gadi Eisencott, the former IDF Chief of Staff whose party now presents the biggest electoral threat to the Likud, supported in the midst of the war the renewal of permits for Palestinian workers to enter Israel – as if he had learned nothing from past experience! And when asked if he would partner with the Arab party headed by Mansour Abbas, he could not provide a clear answer. Is that what he thinks the public wants now?

And what about Lieberman? He now proposes a Jordanian police force to run Palestinian civilian affairs in Areas A and B, alongside Israeli security control. Is this his great solution – Jordanians in Tul Karem and Kalkilye adjacent to Route 6, Netanya and Kfar Saba?! He promises to cancel Oslo, yet still wants to rely on others to take responsibility for our security. 

And then there is Naftali Bennett. This former Yesha Council leader has already assured us that "in the end, Areas A and B will be part of the Palestinian autonomy." Does he not understand that this is the opposite of what the many voters who wish to break out of Oslo want to see? Does he not see that his partnership with Lapid, Golan, and the others appears to many to be a repeat of what he did five years ago when his right-wing voters found themselves having chosen the head of a left-wing government predicated on the support of an Arab party?! 

Right-wing voters who want to replace Netanyahu are therefore rightly suspicious of those who call themselves right-wing yet propose policies that are far from it.

Yair Lapid, Bennett's senior partner, has proposed that Egypt run Gaza for 15 years and then pass it on to the Palestinian Authority after it has made "reforms." Golan says that Mansour Abbas is a legitimate government coalition partner. These are the leaders with whom Eisencott would like to form a government.

On the other hand, with all the anger at Netanyahu, we can see that in Judea and Samaria, his government has carried out major changes and improvements. In Jenin, Tul Karem and elsewhere, IDF forces are working against the terrorist infrastructures, remaining in place to prevent their rehabilitation. The policy changeover from "attacking, withdrawing, then waiting for the next round" to one of more initiative is clearly felt on the ground. And of course the establishment of over 100 new communities in Yesha (!) is a very welcome development; will a new Eisencott-Lapid government continue this approach?

All this does not mean that the public forgives Netanyahu for his failures. But it does mean that it wants his current policies and moves to be perpetuated, without reverting to the tried-and-failed policies of the left. Netanyahu has disappointed many, but his electoral opponents appear headed to disappoint them even more. If the "Change" bloc does not realize this, its defeat is all but guaranteed.

Containment is Not a Recipe for Victory

by Michael Sparber, member of the Judea & Samaria forum, translated by Hillel Fendel.

===Translator's note:
While the world, and particularly American public opinion, focuses on – and exaggerates unrestrainedly – supposed "settler violence," Israel continues to suffer from equally unrestrained murderous terrorism. Our newsletters have featured articles on the truth of the myth of "settler violence" – which we hope our readers disseminate widely – and we plan to continue to do so. In the meantime, please note that on Yom Kippur eve, a Jewish father of six and resident of the Shomrom community of N'vei Aliza was brutally gunned down by a Palestinian terrorist. The victim, in his last moments of life, was able to warn his 16-year-old son and thus save his life. This article deals with the manner in which Israel must wage the ongoing war against terrorism.

The question as to whether Kadri Samara, may his name be blotted out – the Palestinian terrorist who murdered Netanel Shukrun – should be executed (according to a new law passed in the Knesset mandating a death sentence in such cases) is an important one. But it once again puts the spotlight on our reaction to terrorism, instead of on the security and governmental faults that enabled the murder in the first place.

We would be advised not to ask only what to do with the murderer, but what do to prevent another one.

Here is the recent news item that so sadly and perfectly illustrates this failure: an announcement and warning by our Defense Minister, Yisrael Katz. He revealed that Israel has "information" on the possibility that Hamas will try to kidnap an Israeli soldier or citizen. Minister Katz then issued a threat: "If this happens, all of Gaza City will be evacuated and will be dealt with just as we dealt with [the terrorist-headquarter cities of] Rafah and Biet Hanoun."

Note the order: The intelligence exists, but our actions will happen only after the intelligence proves to be true: "If they abduct an Israeli, then we will take the strongest action. If they murder someone, we will execute. If they attack us, we will exact a heavy price."

There is nothing wrong with deterrence, or with threatening. The problem is how and when. Deterrence must happen before, not only after. We find ourselves having turned our threats into policy: The enemy takes the initiative, and we respond; he determines the attack, and we then set the punishment.

This is not the way to win. It's a way of managing the conflict, but it leaves no room for ending it.

Almost sixty years after the Six-Day War, the State of Israel has still not defined the situation it seeks to create in the face of Palestinian terrorism. Israel possesses a strong army, intelligence, the Shin Bet, and elite units. It knows how to arrest wanted persons, thwart terror cells, demolish houses, and find and kill or arrest terrorists almost anywhere and at any hour.

But these are tools. They are not policy.

Over the course of years, we have become accustomed to measuring success by the number of attacks thwarted, instead of by whether we are changing the reality that necessitates our preemptive actions. Another wanted terrorist is arrested, one more cell is thwarted, additional weapons are seized. A terrorist attack is committed, followed by a military operation, followed by some relative quiet – followed at some point or another by another attack. The cycle continues. And the responsibility to break it is not of the IDF or the Shin Bet. It is the responsibility of the political leadership.

And here we must point our finger directly at our current government, headed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. After Oct. 7 (Simchat Torah 2023), it no longer has the privilege of simply "managing" this conflict and its threats. The massacre of three years ago was the worst exemplification of the price to be paid for a policy that seeks to deter the enemy, to thwart him, and to exact prices from him – but to leave the threat that he represents still intact.

We can argue about the methods: about the PA, about sovereignty, security control, or whatever. What can't be done is to not decide. Because inaction and indecision is in itself a decision – to continue the same policies that have failed us in the past. 

And this is precisely what is happening when the government continues to threaten what it will do "if" and "after" – after the enemy murders and kidnaps and attacks. Our reactions are taking the place of ensuring that the enemy cannot continue its attacks.

If there is intelligence about a planned or intended kidnapping, then the first issue that must be dealt with is how to counter the enemy's ability to do so [which is, hopefully and presumably, precisely what our security organs were doing even as Minister Katz issued his threat - HF]. The infrastructures that produce terrorism must be dismantled before, not after, the next attack.
And if it is not only an infrastructure that must be taken down, but the entire reality that is enabling the terrorists to attack again and again, then the government and all its branches must deal strategically with how this reality is totally changed.

Containment is not a policy, but merely a way of gaining time between calamities. Similarly, capital punishment for a given terrorist is not the heart of the matter; it simply distracts us from actually changing the situation - and winning.

After October 7, we can no longer say that we don't know the potential cost of containment. A government that knows, understands, warns, and threatens – yet still continues to manage the same enemy threats, instead of deciding what to do with them, cannot be surprised when it repeatedly receives the same bitter, painful results.

Defeating terrorism begins where containment ends.

The Year that Changed Israel

by Yehuda Vald, Director-General of the Religious Zionism party.

We had an amazing insight while in the midst of anti-Hizbullah combat just a few days ago. We were waiting for the Oketz elite K-9 unit (which uses dogs specially trained to sniff out weapons, ammunition, or volatile chemical vapors from explosives and booby traps, and then sit in place to alert the fighters without detonating the explosives) to scan a house for explosive devices before our entry. I stood there, in the courtyard of a house in the heart of Lebanon, enwrapped in dust and sweat, on a mission to destroy terror infrastructures deep within the territory. I caught the eye of the fighter standing next to me and asked him: "Can you believe what's happening with us right now?"

He just looked at me, and I continued: "If I had told you three years ago that we would be 13 kilometers deep inside Lebanon, marching wherever we feel like, moving between houses and fields almost without fear, opening an operational position in a destroyed village – one of many dozens all along the border - and that on the route back, we would see Israeli flags waving along the roadsides with the city of Tyre in the background, what would you have said?"

It took him a few long seconds to change his perspective. I could see the magnitude of the historic event gradually come through to him – and then we received the order to move into the house and prepare it for destruction.

In the middle of battle in Lebanon, looking around at the big picture as the year of 5786 was drawing to a close, it must be said wholeheartedly: Israel's security situation has never been better. The reality created on the ground over the past year is nothing less than a strategic revolution.

Let's start here in the north: IDF forces have complete control deep inside Lebanon and are able to act freely all along the long border. Hizbullah, the terrorist organization that sat on our fences for decades, looming threateningly and murderously over our northern towns, has been systematically decimated. Thousands of its terrorist operatives have been killed, and the rest have been distanced tens of kilometers towards the north.

On our northeastern sector, Israeli outposts are stationed deep within Syrian territory, and the critically strategic Mt. Hermon Crown has become a strong built-up Israel outpost, fortified and protected.

In the south, Israel holds 60% of the Gaza Strip, from which so many murderous attacks emanated over the decades, and of course especially in 2023. Our brave and courageous soldiers man the Yellow Line (the north-south line that divides Gaza into IDF territory and that which is still controlled by Hamas), systematically gunning down anyone who nears the border, or who took part in the Simchat Torah massacre three years ago.

And of course, we cannot forget the head of the terror octopus seeking to attack Israel from every angle: Iran. Israeli forces carried out unbelievable missions precisely in the heart of Tehran; dozens of leading Iranian officials and military figures have been liquidated, including the leader himself, Ali Khameini. Working in tight cooperation with the United States, our forces destroyed infrastructures and headquarters, killed many terrorists, and landed a very heavy blow against Iran's nuclear installations.

Israel's recent strategic revolution is not confined merely to the security realm. In the realms of construction and the settlement enterprise as well, there has never been a Jewish presence as broad, deep, and significant in Judea and Samaria as there is today. Dozens of new communities, and over 100 farms, have been established throughout the territory, and we have even returned to the northern Shomron communities from which our fellow citizens were expelled during the days of the Disengagement 21 years ago.

In the north, often very close to the Lebanese border, new homes are being built and dozens of young families are joining these veteran pioneering communities. Kindergartens in Metula and Zar'it are once again teeming with life and children playing. To the south, in the Gaza envelope and the Tekuma region, hundreds of new couples and families are settling down, construction is in full swing, and the waiting lists only continue to grow longer.

The Israeli economy has revealed strength that surprised all the analysts. Despite nearly three years of difficult and complex war, unemployment is at a historic low, the stock exchange is climbing, hi-tech stocks are taking off, foreign investments flow in at a record-breaking pace, and the shekel is strong against the dollar and other foreign currency. As predicted in the Talmud, at the time of the Ingathering of the Exiles, the Land of Israel is giving forth its fruits ever so generously.

But of all the miracles, the biggest one is taking place in our life spirit. Despite the futile attempts, morning and evening, to convince us how terribly divided we are, the truth on the ground is diametrically the opposite: Israeli society is experiencing one of its greatest moments of unity in its history.

Hundreds of thousands of reservists and their families eagerly put their entire daily routines on hold and enlist to protect the homeland. Thousands of volunteers embrace our many bereaved families, medical teams act with endless sensitivity and compassion to rehabilitate the wounded, tens of thousands of youths volunteer in their communities, and businesses donate equipment and food on an unprecedented scale. All of this is happening across the political spectrum: right and left, religious, secular, and haredi. This is the unconditional love (Ahavat Chinam) of and within the Nation of Israel.

I'm not coming to whitewash the terrible prices that we have paid since Oct. 7, 2023. My eyes are not closed to the hardships, the pain, and the heavy crises we have undergone since then. We have paid in our must expensive currency: the lives of our best sons and daughters. The tears of the mothers, widows and children continue to sear our hearts. Not for naught do we pray on Rosh HaShanah, "May this year and its curses come to an end."

But alongside the pain, as the year of 5786 ends, it is incumbent upon us to view our nation and people, and G-d's blessings, in a generous and positive manner. We must and want to say Thank You with all our hearts for all the many miracles and great abundance of good that G-d has showered upon us this past year.

A moment after we completed our mission deep inside Lebanon, while wearing our uniforms filled with dust and sweat, we stood and prayed together: "So many great thanks for all the good and all the kindnesses, o dear Father in heaven."

Yes, we need many more of them, many more salvations and consolations. We pray that the new year be filled with blessing.

Hunger in Gaza? Obesity is on the Rise

by Hillel Fendel, former editor of Arutz-7's IsraelNationalNews.com.

UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) has released new statistics showing that the famine in Gaza that Israel is widely accused of precipitating has now given way to a new trend: obesity.

According to the new report, malnutrition among children in Gaza is actually much lower than previously reported – a rate of 0.5 percent, one of the lowest rates of acute child malnutrition in the region. This, according to an analysis by The Free Press of data from the World Bank and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN–affiliated hunger-monitoring system. The data were collected by the Gaza SMART Survey, conducted by the State of Palestine [sic] Nutrition Cluster, led by UNICEF; 1,335 children under five years old were included in the survey, conducted from May 31 until June 15 of this year.

A year ago, Gaza was officially declared a famine-stricken area, leading to widespread accusations against Israel. Israel maintained that it was allowing hundreds of truckloads of food each day into the Gaza Strip, but that Hamas was commandeering the supplies and selling them to the highest bidders or giving them to their own people.

The new report raises the question as to whether the original report was ever correct, or whether it was the results of distorted statistics, purposefully or otherwise.

The latest report shows that the rate of "wasting" – a medical term referring to extreme thinness indicating malnutrition – is "low across all [Gazan] sectors, indicating that acute, widespread malnutrition does not exist at the population level."

Not only do the figures show one of the lowest rates of acute childhood malnutrition in the entire region, researchers also found that only about 12% of children in Gaza suffer from stunted growth due to poor nutrition - less than half of the regional average, which stands at 26%.

"To be honest, I thought the figure [of stunted growth] would be much higher," admitted Elena Naumova, Chair of the Division of Nutrition Data Science at Tufts University in Boston.

The new UNICEF report reveals that Gaza is now facing a completely different challenge: obesity and overweight, which together affect about 4% of children under age five in Gaza. An astonished senior researcher who previously supervised data collection teams at the Africa Foundation noted that she had "never seen" the emergence of obesity in a place that had been declared a famine-stricken area just a year prior.

Hamas Steals and Diverts Aid

According to a report by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), "Delivering humanitarian assistance during an active armed conflict is extraordinarily complex... [In Gaza], one of the greatest challenges has been Hamas itself. Throughout the war, Israel, the United States, and numerous independent observers have documented instances in which Hamas stole, taxed, diverted, or otherwise exploited humanitarian assistance intended for Palestinian civilians." 

Just last month, COGAT – the Israeli Defense Ministry body charged with coordinating Government Activities in the Territories - remaining market distortions inside Gaza are now driven less by shortages than by Hamas's continued influence over commercial distribution mechanisms.

Hamas still diverts humanitarian aid, according to many Palestinian civilians, Israel, and numerous reports. The AJC report states: "Israeli intelligence, videos released during the war, statements from Palestinian Authority officials, and testimony from aid workers have all pointed to Hamas's efforts to control humanitarian assistance as a means of financing its operations and maintaining political authority inside Gaza."