Why Not Just Bomb the Building

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: 

1. 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. 
2. 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. 
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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!

Gaza and Israel: The Fantasy of the Day After

by veteran Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai Huberman, translated by Hillel Fendel.

One of the questions occupying the thoughts and "expert" opinions of many in the Israeli media, the Government of Israel, and the Biden Administration is what to do with Gaza when the current war ends. 

One of the more bizarre ideas being considered is that the Palestinian Authority, led by Fatah chief Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), must make certain changes and then take over the control of the Gaza Strip. These changes include: 

• stopping all PA activity against Israel in international bodies such as The Hague
• stopping all incitement against Israel in its media, textbooks, et al
• stopping all salaries and payments to terrorists sitting in Israeli prisons for their crimes
• and of course doing away with all internal PA corruption.

This idea is the fruit of the thinking not only of leading Biden Administration clerks, but also, and perhaps even more so, of the Israeli left.  And so I would like to address my dear fantasizing brethren here at home: Please wake up and return to solid ground! The chance that these changes will be made is approximately equivalent to the chance that Iran will announce a unilateral disarmament of its nuclear capabilities, that Nasrallah will destroy the many thousands of Hizbullah rockets he is pointing at Israel, and that the Hamas murderers now hiding for their lives in tunnels will give up their weapons this afternoon and announce that they are immigrating en-masse to Indonesia.

One would have thought that after the total collapse of so many clichés that have supported the peace camp over the years, it would finally come to its senses over the true intentions of our enemies. For instance, they long enthusiastically promoted the concept of "territories in exchange for peace" – which led directly to what has happened in Gaza since October 7th (Simchat Torah). It is now clear to all, or should be, that their dream of peace with the Palestinians, as they envisioned it, will not happen. 

Another left-wing cliché that has lost its vitality is "Israel cannot exist as a Jewish and democratic state if a Palestinian state is not established alongside it." Everyone now sees what came of the Palestinian entity that has existed in Gaza since the infamous Disengagement 18 years ago.

How can we be so sure that the Palestinian Authority will not make the necessary changes and become the civilized neighbor for which we have pined all these many years? Because those changes would negate the PA's essential existence. It has not made these changes in the 30 years of its existence not because they are lazy, but because teaching their children to hate Israel, the important value of martyrdom, and supporting terrorist murderers and their families are the fundamental elements of the very foundations of their societal existence and of what they hold dear. 

Ever since its establishment as a result of the Oslo Accords of the early 1990's, the PA's media and textbooks have been replete with incitement and hatred against Israel – despite all the many promises of its leaders to change this. For 30 years it has been supporting terrorists and their families with monthly salaries, while all this time its leaders have corruptly shaved off monies for their own personal use. Whoever believes that the PA will suddenly change its stripes, even to receive control over Gaza, is simply floating in outer space.

Another claim that has been heard in Israel these past weeks is this: The Government of Israel must decide right now the future of the Gaza Strip not only because Biden demands it, but also because the IDF cannot continue onto the next stages of its combat in Gaza without knowing the overall national strategy and plans for the area.

The logic of this claim escapes me. The IDF has a clear objective: to destroy the military capabilities of Hamas. This mission has nothing to do with who or what will control Gaza after Hamas is out of the picture. It has only to do with destroying the entire Hamas tunnels network, as large as it is, as well as all of its rockets, and killing as many terrorists as possible, including of course its leaders such as Yichye Sinwar and Muhammed Def. Though these goals might take a while, the IDF can definitely accomplish them, despite the accompanying difficulties, even without knowing what will happen afterwards.

It is nice to know that at least on one point even the Israeli left agrees: the fact that the security control of Gaza must remain exclusively in Israeli hands. No military entity other than the Israel Defense Forces can be entrusted with the responsibility of protecting Israel. 

Administrative and civilian control is another story. The questions are many: What civilian entity will run the lives of the Arab populace in Gaza? How much of the area will be under its control? How many Arabs will remain altogether in Gaza? What will be the future borders of the Gaza Strip? How much of the area will serve as a buffer zone between it and Israel? 

The plethora of question marks means that it would be a total waste of time and energy to try to predict such a cloudy and unstable future. First let us win – and afterwards we will already know what to do.