by MK Tzvi Sukkot a member of the Religious Zionism party, translated by Hillel Fendel.
MK Tzvi Sukkot – a member of the Religious Zionism party and former Director-General of the Jewish Power party – was tremendously concerned, as were many, by the fact that nine IDF officers and soldiers were killed last week in a military operation to clear out terrorists from a building. "Why were instructions not given to the Air Force to bomb the building instead of having our infantry endanger themselves?" was a frequent question. MK Sukkot investigated the matter, and wrote the following summation as to what he learned.
First, however, it must be made clear that in this specific case, the entire battle was initiated based on intelligence that Israeli hostages were in the building – in which case, aerial bombing was clearly not an option. Regarding the aerial bombing policy in general, Sukkot wrote:
One of the main jobs of Knesset Members is to oversee the activities of the various arms of government. The overseeing of the IDF is done in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, of which I am privileged to be a member.
When I heard of the terrible incident in which a large number of Golani Brigade soldiers were killed, my first thoughts too were: "How could it be that the building wasn't taken down beforehand from the air? Why would we endanger our soldiers in this way?" The parts of me that have trouble trusting some of our institutions immediately woke up, and I and a few colleagues conducted a mini-investigation.
I spoke with senior army people, soldiers in the field, earth-works contractors, bulldozer operators, people with experience in both the military and in razing buildings, officers in charge of heavy equipment in Gaza, and more. Not including the material that I am not at liberty to share, here are my conclusions:
- There are approximately a quarter of a million buildings in Gaza. Even if we wanted to raze all of them, there are simply not enough armaments in the entire world to do so. Thus that this is clearly not an option.
- In the US, houses are built with wood, in Israel we build with layers of concrete blocks, and in Gaza they build with concrete. This means that the Israel Air Force (IAF) requires very specific armaments to raze a building of several floors. True, a half-destroyed building that is cannot be used for housing, but terrorists can certainly use it as a hideout, as they have done many times – and especially if the building is atop a tunnel opening. It is therefore not always beneficial to bomb buildings from the air. It is thus regrettable that a report originated in the U.S. this week saying that it takes only 20 minutes to bring down a building. That might be true for wooden houses, but certainly not for concrete ones.
- What about using a D9 bulldozer? The answer is that though it is quite large and powerful, it cannot bring down a building of several stories without gravely endangering the driver. Other giant bulldozers with long reaches are simply not in sufficient supply. In addition, securing an operation to demolish a four-story house takes more time and resources – and risks – than does checking it over by foot. Anyone who has ever seen the demolition of a building knows how long it takes.
- The heavy equipment owned by the IDF is used practically 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for both combat activity and leveling out areas.
- Buildings can be demolished with the help of explosives – but to this end, soldiers must arrive physically at the building and place the explosive at critical points of the building. Such that the explosives don’t spare us the need to endanger our soldiers.
- Our previous rounds of battle with the terrorists of Gaza were based almost totally on IAF air raids – and we saw the sorry results these led to. Most fortunately, this time the IDF and the decision-makers understood that the methodology must be changed and that the areas must really be cleaned out. But this can only be done if we are able to get physically to the buildings, where we can find and destroy the underground bases and positions - and terrorists. When it is possible to bomb from the air, the IAF does so, but if it is not the strategically correct thing to do, then not. When the planes do not bomb, it is not because we're worried about harming innocent lives – and certainly not in a terrorist-infested neighborhood like Sajaiye.
The pain at losing our soldiers is tremendous, and we must constantly be on the alert that progressive agendas do not infiltrate the IDF, as has happened in the past. I am the last person to call for placing blind trust in everything that the IDF or our government does. But it must be said, based on soldiers' testimonies from the battlefield, that the combat in Gaza is increasingly being waged the way we always wanted: minimum risk to soldiers, maximum aggressiveness in liquidating the enemy.
And why is it important to write this? Because when we are in wartime and fighting constant heavy daily battles, we may not give our soldiers the sense that they are dying in vain. That would be the most dangerous threat of all. No one – no mother, no wife, and no soldier – should have to think that we are sending our best boys to die in vain, especially when it is totally untrue.
Now is the time to give full backing to our heroic soldiers!