by Nadav Rath, Strategic Business and Personal Decisions Consultant , translated by Hillel Fendel.
Some in Israel's nationalist camp are falling into the same trap that Hamas successfully set for Israel's left-wing sector over the past year. We must be careful not to identify with the victory messages of Hamas, but rather continue to broadcast strength and might.
Over the past year, every time Hamas sent us a video [not shown in Israel, thankfully] of poor hostages forced to parrot words fed them by the terrorists demanding that Israel's government agree to a deal for their release, we of the right-wing camp all wondered: Could it possibly be that those clamoring for a deal no matter what, don't realize that their messages totally jibe with those of Hamas?
Both
Hamas and the hostage-families/supporters screamed out together: "At any
price!" "Now!" "The government of Israel are
murderers!" They also rammed down our throats that the IDF offensives are
killing or maiming the hostages. Many of us understood from the beginning that
they were seeking to manipulate us with psychological warfare, and we didn't fall
for their tricks. Official Israel did not agree to disseminate the videos. But
many others didn't seem to notice.
After
a few months, it became extra clear that this was a well-planned strategy of
the enemy, with the goal of sowing chaos and discord within the Israeli public.
Once this happened, we were able to continue with the war with extra energies,
knowing that the enemy was strong and determined to deceive us – and that we
must not fall into their propaganda trap. War always demands strength and
determination, and certainly not lowliness and solidarity with the enemy's
goals.
But
this morning, I was very sad to find that many of us have apparently begun to
suffer from a type of temporary blindness. Maybe it was the publication of the
names of the arch-terrorists and murderers who are about to be released, or
maybe it was the celebrations in Gaza that so confused us. All I know is that even
some of my good friends began to share Hamas propaganda – videos of happy terrorists
roaming the streets of Gaza, waving their hands in the joy of victory.
What
is the purpose of spreading these scenes on our phones? We all knew and
internalized that the purpose of the videos of the hostages were designed to harm
us and our unity, our strength, our faith, our determination. Has anything
changed now? In what way is the dissemination of videos of what Hamas considers
victory (despite the ruins and the stench of death all around them) a good idea?
These scenes were released by Hamas for precisely one purpose: to harm us and
our morale, to strike at us psychologically and spiritually, to seek to ensure
that we will not want to renew the war in six weeks' time. What they want is for
us to fight amongst ourselves again as to who was at fault, and to leave them
in "peace."
We are going through difficult days as it
is, without the need to disseminate Hamas propaganda amongst ourselves. Yes, we
must object to this terrible ceasefire and wholesale terrorist release, and the
noble protests by some families of hostages and of fallen soldiers were of
inestimable importance; it is inconceivable that such a decision would go
unprotested. Now, however, we must resolve that our role is to continue to
strengthen our nation in the justness of its path and struggle – and not to
weaken ourselves, lower our spirits, or act as if all our efforts until now
were in vain.
I have made a simple decision: I won't share any Hamas propaganda such as photos of their celebrations. I will rather focus on the tremendous destruction we have rained down on the Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the flattening of much of Gaza, the killing of tens of thousands of Hamas supporters, and the elimination of most of Hamas's leaders. I will continue to work to bolster our national spirit and ensure that we renew the war. Yes, we made a tactical blunder by agreeing to this deal – but we will not let it affect the entire war, of which we are still in the midst. "Let us be strong," we read in Samuel II, "for the sake of our nation and the cities of our G-d."