Shabbat has now ended, but I carry with me the messages of an incredible
Shabbat afternoon, during which Rabbi Seth and Sherri Mandell spoke on “Faith in
the Face of Tragedy.” The Mandells lost their son Koby to terrorists
13 years ago, and devote themselves to good work in his memory, via the Koby
Mandell Foundation.
Credit:
Newtownbee
An inspiration to us all, they remind us of the importance of doing mitzvot
(commandments/good works) in the memory of those who are gone. Sometimes, we
have to go down into the darkness, says Sherri, to come to the brachot (the
blessings).
And so I implore one and all not to stop: work on Jewish unity, increase
prayer and Jewish study, show kindnesses to others, and give to charities, in
the names of the three students - Gilad,
Eyal, and Naftali – whom we have lost.
The world will never understand us and it’s pointless to hope that it
will. It is only to ourselves – and Heaven – that we must account for our
behavior.
As to how the world sees us: we’re dealing right now with nothing less than
an old-fashioned anti-Semitic blood libel, with regard to the charges that Jews
killed the boy Mohammed Hussein Abu Khder.
It’s coming from Arabs, and most specifically Hamas: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/182499#.U7hdZZtZrIU
. We see it in modified forms in the international media, which has picked up
some of the charges.
Last I wrote about Abu Khder, I provided arguments as to why there is every
reason to believe his murderers were Arab. I included the fact that his
body had been burned and pointed out that this was not the Jewish way.
Which it most certainly is not.
But now I must carry this further: The initial autopsy result shows that
this boy died of burns over 90% of his body. Horrendous. He
was burned to death.
Well, it happens that burning alive is a “traditional” approach within
Islamic law for executing a homosexual.
How do we combat it, when Arabs claim that Jews, knowing of the Muslim
approach, did it to make it look like a Muslim did it?
We carry on, while the government and security agencies pursue a vigorous
investigation to find the murderers. Won’t be an easy job, as they are
being shielded, undoubtedly. Most importantly, we do not hesitate to take
whatever actions we know must be taken, even though some portions of the world
will now insist on seeing a moral equivalency - Arabs kill innocent boys,
Jews kill innocent boys.
We must not expect fairness from the world – we must answer to
ourselves.
~~~~~~~~~~
What seems reasonably clear to me is that some significant percentage of
the Arab rioters in the Jerusalem streets probably knew full well – based on the
information about how the boy died – that their own people did this. Not
that this stopped them from their rampage. Perhaps they simply chose to
adopt the the blood libel as truth.
Undoubtedly they see it as a win-win-win situation for themselves: Their
community is rid of a boy who would have been considered an “abomination” (the
ugly reality is that this is how Islam sees it), while they have been able to
shift the blame onto Israel, which had the moral high ground after the murder of
the students. And they have a chance to riot, as well.
The rioting hasn’t stopped, I must note: it has spread to the “triangle”
area in the north that has a heavy Arab population.
~~~~~~~~~~
Shifting gears, I want to look at the situation with Gaza, which is in flux
at the moment. Here I will provide background, mindful that by tomorrow
another posting to address a new situation may be called for.
During the time that we as a nation were focused on the search for the boys
and then the initial mourning for them, there had been a fairly regular barrage
of rockets launched from Gaza. Hamas did not do all of the launching, but
it was reported as being more directly involved than it had been of
recent. And it was clear that they were giving other terrorists groups a
free hand to promote attacks – a shift from the situation that had prevailed
since our last operation in Gaza in 2012 (“Pillar of Defense”), after which it
was said we had deterrence.
In the course of the last few days, there were a few injuries (no
fatalities) and some damage done by the rockets. But what must be pointed
out as well is the misery of life in southern Israel – and particularly Sderot –
when there are sirens sounding, which require a dash to a shelter and make the
heart pump furiously. It’s no way for innocent civilians to have to live,
and it is incumbent upon our government to act against this.
~~~~~~~~~~
Additional IDF troops were moved along the border in Gaza by mid-week,
suggesting the imminence of a major military action. But I suspected that
this was saber-rattling, and indeed this is what it turned out to be.
On Thursday, Netanyahu delivered a message to Hamas leadership via Egypt
that said we would be “quiet” if they were “quiet.” Thursday evening (at a
Fourth of July celebration at the home of the US Ambassador to Israel), he
said:
Not a good policy, this “quiet for quiet.” It has made me – along
with many others – crazy for years. This is what Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA
had to say about this policy on Thursday. It explains the situation very
succinctly:
“Dear Hamas leadership,
“If you stop shooting - at least stop shooting much - then we will leave you alone so that you can continue to build up your offensive capabilities.
“We call this our ‘quiet for quiet’ policy.
“And we don't have to tell you just how much the "quiet for quiet" policy has been a gift for Hamas until now.
“When we first began the ‘quiet for quiet policy’ there were only very primitive launching devices in the Gaza Strip with extremely limited range and payload.
“At the time we adopted the ‘quiet for quiet’ policy because we didn't want to invest the military effort required to clear out the Gaza Strip of the terror threat as we did in the massive operation we carried out in the West Bank and we wanted to keep life bearable within the area that was within range of attacks from the Gaza Strip.
“Thanks to Israel's ‘quiet for quiet’, there are now weapons factories in the Gaza Strip producing rockets and missiles that can reach Tel Aviv and beyond...”
Hamas and related smaller jihadist groups in Gaza are estimated to have
70,000 rockets and missiles.
~~~~~~~~~~
On Friday, we heard that Egypt was supposed to be negotiating a ceasefire
between Israel and Hamas that was expected to kick in momentarily.
This was already a bad way to go, and it then got worse:
It is standard policy for the Israeli Air Force to fly in over Gaza every
time a rocket is launched, and hit something: a launching field, a weapons
factory, an empty building. Occasionally, a person who is involved with
the rockets gets hit. This is not a major operation, by any means, and not
really expected to deter further launchings. But it is a way of extracting
a price for every rocket or missile fired into Israel.
What happened on Friday was that a decision was made NOT to respond to
rockets. This was nauseating. This was a “bang my head against the wall”
scenario.
Aaron Lerner, citing Israel Radio Reshet Bet, explained the “logic”
thus:
Our government was so eager for “quiet” that it was willing to let Hamas
appear the stronger force?
~~~~~~~~~~
It should be noted that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman voiced
opposition to a ceasefire.
~~~~~~~~~~
I went into Shabbat – during which time there is a news blackout for me –
assuming that by the time Shabbat went out a ceasefire would have been
announced.
What I discovered tonight was that there has been no ceasefire: Hamas has
not stopped firing rockets but has, instead, escalated its attacks. Some
20 plus rockets were shot into Israel today, and, for the first time since 2012,
rockets were aimed at the major Negev city of Be’ersheva.
Apparently, we have started responding again to at least some of the rocket
launchings, but no major IDF action has been initiated, at least not yet.
NU? It is more than 48 hours since Netanyahu delivered his
ultimatum. The prime minister consulted with military and security heads
tonight and, say news reports, “may be considering” a larger operation.
Why “considering.” The head of our government said, clearly, that if
the rocket attacks didn’t stop, we would act forcefully.
There had better be an operation now, or we will look very weak and foolish
indeed, at a time when there is not the luxury of seeming weak.
~~~~~~~~~~
What is going on?
As is his wont, Netanyahu is attempting to answer to the world again,
instead of accounting to ourselves for our actions. I have seen some analyses
that say that the murder of Mohammed Hussein Abu Khder limits his options in
Gaza. And I think this is nonsense. An idiotic and judgmental US secretary
of state alluded last week to the boy’s murder as “vengeance,” by which he meant
that Jews attacked an Arab unreasonably in response to the murder of Jewish
boys. So this means we cannot take action in Gaza because we will be
accused of additional vengeance?
It’s important to make matters clear here. It is not as if Hamas was
sitting quietly over there in Gaza, and we decided to hit them because our boys
died. (Which, by the way, still would not be vengeance, but rather – as I
had discussed – justice, as we would attempt to weaken the leadership
responsible for such acts.) But as it is, our going into Gaza would be
self-defense, plain and simple. And we are not only entitled to self-defense, it
is essential.
~~~~~~~~~~
Two important additional points here, with more to follow
undoubtedly.
First, a ground operation is necessary to take out any significant part of
the rocket capability of Hamas in Gaza. That is because those rockets are hidden
in civilian areas – and Hamas counts on Israel to not inflict the sort of
civilian damage that would likely result from targeting the rockets from the
air.
~~~~~~~~~~
And then this: Our goal should be as much destruction of Hamas weaponry as
possible, and a diminishing/weakening of Hamas leadership. However, it
should not be our goal to take down Hamas completely, as much as this appeals to
many. That is because Hamas is not the worst of the jihadist forces in
Gaza now.
There is al-Qaeda. And, according to Khaled Abu Toameh, there is ISIS: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4392/isis-gaza . If
we create a vacuum, one of these other groups will move in. (Right now,
for a variety of reasons, there is no thought being given to retaking
Gaza.)
~~~~~~~~~~
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett (head of Habayit Hayehudi) is screaming
long and loud about the impression of weakness lent by current government
decisions. He is calling for tough action in Gaza. So are some
others.
Let us see what transpires tomorrow...
As time allows, I may look at a variety of ways to handle Hamas that are
being proposed.
~~~~~~~~~~
© Arlene Kushner.
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