YOU HAVE FAILED MISERABLY, MR. PRIME MINISTER! IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO PACK YOUR BAGS!

How many times have we cried out that the Israel Defense Forces are being constrained by world opinion? The bitter truth revealed during the recent military operations is that we get a ringing slap in the face specifically when the Israeli government tries to appease the international community.

Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry

1.

If all the commentators last week were still asking in amazement if we had been victorious in the recent Gaza operation, now they wondering if we actually lost. It’s not just whether we lost the “protective edge,” rather how much did we lose and how painful will this loss be for us in the long run.

It’s no longer a question of why the Israel Defense Forces went out to fight a war that it failed to win. People were asking why we suffered the loss of sixty-seven of our best soldiers and citizens, may G-d avenge their blood, while Hamas eventually won the battle and attained its objective. Now the question is whether they got everything they wanted before they started this conflict, i.e., the lifting of restrictions on the coastal blockade, approval of an airport, re-opening the Rafiah crossing – or just a part of it?

Another point: Do you remember that before this operation began, the prime minister was taking pride in how his government did not and would not negotiate with the Hamas terrorists? Well, so what that he promised? During the last two weeks of hostilities, that promise was replaced with a new statement: “We will not negotiate under fire.” In other words, negotiating with Hamas has been approved. The government of Israel even sent a delegation to Egypt for that very purpose – just as long as it is not done under fire. However, the most amazing thing is that the government of Israel has even failed to meet this condition. Hamas continued to fire missiles while the Israeli delegation talked with them about the conditions they had set for the war’s success – from their point of view, of course. Only a few ridiculous excuses kept the Israelis from sitting at the negotiating table that Friday morning – during a missile attack on the cities of southern Eretz Yisroel. The official excuse was that the delegation had to leave the talks in time for Shabbos. Come on, who are they trying to kid?

According to the latest reports, the Israeli delegation wasn’t just negotiating with Hamas – it was doing so under fire, while Hamas was aiming its rockets at the south with an unceasing barrage. But worst of all, this same delegation agreed to virtually all of the terrorists’ demands. If so, why did we go to war? Why were our finest soldiers killed? To give the Rafiah crossing to the cursed murderer Abu Mazen, who pays a monthly salary to these terrorists, at a rate set according to the number of Jews they slaughter? Is this the objective our fighting men sought to achieve when they went out to be killed al Kiddush Hashem?

One more question: If they were firing missiles on Israel’s southern cities before the war, and they will undoubtedly continue to do so afterwards at the same pace and without interruption, what has changed as a result of the recent conflict? The apparent claim is that we went to war to demolish the Hamas tunnels, as this was part of the military objectives. However, that is an outright lie. No one had even heard of the tunnels’ existence nor could they estimate their vastness in scope until the incident when thirteen terrorists emerged from a tunnel shaft beyond the border with Gaza. Only then did they suddenly change course and establish a new military objective – destroying the tunnels.

2.

Everyone is asking: Could it have been possible to conduct this battle in a different manner? The journalist Chanoch Daum wrote in his inimitable style the same message that the Rebbe conveyed time and time again during the war in Lebanon: “Just for the sake of argument, let’s assume that Hamas got upset with [Egyptian president] Sisi because he didn’t give them the Rafiah crossing, and they decided to start firing rockets on Egypt. It wouldn’t take long before Hamas realized that it had made a colossal mistake. An hour? Two hours? A day? Sisi would be nowhere to be seen. He would simply advance his tanks to the border with Gaza and start blasting. Within three hours, there would be three thousand dead Palestinians there. The world would get involved, Hamas would stop firing its missiles, and everyone would realize that it’s not a good idea to start up with Sisi.

“Now, this is certainly not ethical and it’s quite clear that this is not the way to do things. However, let’s admit that from a mathematical standpoint, Sisi would put a halt to the firing upon his citizens in three hours, while making the Palestinians in Gaza pay a price that Israel is collecting from them in installments, over a period of three months. In other words, if instead of the nearly two thousand Palestinians killed thus far in Gaza there would have been only one thousand killed, yet they were all on the first day of fighting, it’s conceivable that we would be well into a ceasefire by now, with fewer killed for them and for us, and quiet that would last for several years.”

Daum’s words are quite logical. This is the message that the Rebbe repeated throughout the war in Lebanon. The Rebbe emphasized that while the enemy was created in the image of man, one swift and mighty blow against them also would have saved countless casualties on both sides.

International considerations have also been added to this operation. How many times have we cried out that the Israel Defense Forces are being constrained by world opinion? The bitter truth revealed during recent military operations is that we get a ringing slap in the face specifically when Israeli policy places a heavy emphasis upon its efforts to appease the international community. This battle has been waged by, of all people, an Israeli prime minister raised overseas, and he has devoted a major portion of his diplomatic tactics to paying an unprecedented amount of attention to world opinion. With “impeccable” logic, he explained to us how every ceasefire gives the IDF greater legitimacy before the world, and how all the “humanitarian” ceasefires have enabled us to receive approval for continuing the war.

However, this tactic has failed to prove its effectiveness. Instead of receiving greater legitimacy before the world, we have placed a ring of international media cameras around us. As a result, when they start talking about a “humanitarian ceasefire,” the press immediately goes out to check why the humanitarian situation in Gaza is so atrocious. During one military operation, the government of Israel agreed to five separate ceasefires.

This war lasted for twenty-nine days. Since there was no ground offensive during the first eight days of action, this means that ground forces were only in Gaza for twenty-one days. During this three week period, no less than five ceasefires were called! Some lasted a few hours, some for a full day. Is this the way to conduct a war? What’s really most incredible is that these ceasefires did us absolutely no good in the eyes of the world.

3.

Let the truth be told: If it weren’t for the unequivocal statements of the leader of our generation against showing indecision before the international community, we could easily have been convinced by the prime minister’s arguments. There are even those among our own ranks who explained to me that Netanyahu is running the operation with remarkable shrewdness, as the logic behind the ceasefire approach has revealed the true face of Hamas to the entire world. “They continue to fire missiles while we receive greater understanding before the community of nations,” they say. When I claimed that the Rebbe taught us that showing such indecision merely places us in a position of weakness and inferiority, they replied that the situation has changed and things work quite differently now.

In the final analysis, it’s impossible to deviate from the Rebbe’s words. Everything occurring now had been foreseen long ago in dozens of detailed sichos that the Rebbe delivered with pinpoint accuracy. Instead of proper international recognition, we get a United Nations “war crimes” committee, chaired by an anti-Semitic Canadian attorney who previously said that Prime Minister Netanyahu (and even Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres!) should be brought before the International Court of Justice in the Hague as war criminals.

Here is a recitation of the facts as publicized by research investigator Raviv Druker, distinguishing between Operation “Protective Edge” conducted according to a policy of appeasement, and Operation “Cast Lead” with its more conventional Israeli approach.

“At first glance, the two operations were quite similar. ‘Cast Lead’ lasted twenty-two days, resulting in three civilian deaths and a ground offensive beginning on its eighth day. ‘Protective Edge’ went for twenty-nine days, with three civilian deaths and a ground offensive beginning on its ninth day. However, just look at the difference: During ‘Cast Lead,’ the ground forces went deep into the [Gaza] Strip, to the outskirts of Gaza City. There were already reports on Hamas terrorists shaving their beards [out of fear for IDF retaliation – S.B.C.], and the price to Israel was ten soldiers killed. In ‘Protective Edge,’ the ground offensive was superficial, only a kilometer or two into the Strip. The cost: sixty-four soldiers. During ‘Cast Lead,’ the talk was about seven hundred Hamas terrorists killed. ‘Protective Edge’ apparently had the same amount, more or less. The significance: From a ratio of one of ours killed to seventy of theirs in ‘Cast Lead,’ we came to [a ratio of] one of ours killed to about eleven of theirs [in ‘Protective Edge’].

“Take a look at Hamas. During ‘Cast Lead,’ they fired an average of thirty-nine rockets a day during the first week. In ‘Protective Edge,’ it was four times as much – an average of 144 rockets a day during the first week. During ‘Cast Lead’ they brought Israel to a halt as far as the Ashdod-Ashkelon border. In ‘Protective Edge’ it upset the routine for residents of Tel Aviv, the Sharon region, Yerushalayim, and even Haifa – two-thirds of the country. During ‘Cast Lead,’ as long as the operation continued, the rocket attacks gradually decreased. By the third week, Hamas was already firing an average of [only] fifteen rockets a day – a 60% reduction from the first week, also proportionate to a successful ground operation. In the fourth week of ‘Protective Edge,’ Hamas fired more missiles than in the third week. While this marked a decrease of 32% in the daily average compared to the first week, it was still an average of ninety-seven rockets a day when the IDF had tens of thousands of soldiers in the [Gaza] Strip.”

4.

While the present-day reality is not very encouraging, we can take some comfort from the fact that as with all the analysis made in recent years, here too, we reveal the true essence of the Jewish People. We draw the conclusion that there is only one way to live in Eretz Yisroel with peace and security – in accordance with the instructions of the Torah and its eternal message of “the land upon which the eyes of G‑d are focused from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.”

Just nine years ago, we thought that the expulsion from Gush Katif had put an end to the Jewish People’s identification with the Land of Israel according to the Torah of Israel. Instead, we have discovered that the expulsion actually brought a fortification of our true and justifiable claim to Eretz HaKodesh for all to see. Today, no one dares to say that it was good that we chose to abandon the inheritance of our forefathers. The People of Israel have come to their senses. They have finally understood that only a connection to Eretz Yisroel through their faith in the Torah will give us true peace and security, with the knowledge that this is our land and we will protect every inch of it.

The recent military operation has also revealed the simple truth that we are “a nation that will dwell alone.” It makes no difference how many ploys or tricks we use to gain favor before the world at-large – this strategy simply won’t work. The only way to impress the world community is through a firm and confident declaration of an uncompromising policy against the terrorist organizations as a means to bring greater security to the People of Israel in their land.