Shalom all,

The number of IDF deaths since the beginning of the ground offensive has now reached 256. The total number of IDF deaths since October 7th stands at 600. 

We’re six months into Operation Sword of Iron. An in-depth analysis of the war will not be undertaken in this post. There are numerous articles that have presented pluses and minuses of the events since October 7th and have expressed various viewpoints, which are often at odds with each other, throughout the course of the war. Some things, however, are clear.

Following the massive invasion of Hamas and other terrorists into the southern communities in the Gaza Envelope, the brutal massacre of over 1,200 individuals, most of whom were civilians, and the abduction of over 250 men, women and children of all ages, both civilians and members of the IDF, Israel set out to eliminate Hamas, dismantle its ability to pose a threat to Israel, and to locate and return the hostages. The goals were and remain noble, but ended up being in conflict with each other. As a result, the repeated promises of “total victory” expressed by the Israeli government have up to now fallen far short of being accomplished.

After 183 days, Hamas has been weakened, but it still continues to exist and to fight. The same is true of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza. And, of course, there are the “unaffiliated” Gazans who participated in the events of October 7th and took some captives for themselves. While some of the hostages were released and returned to Israel as a result of a deal worked out between Israel and Hamas, and while the IDF succeeded to free 3 who were taken captive, the difficult realization is that as of this date, we still don’t know how many hostages remain alive, who they are and where they are being held. Tomorrow will be six months since October 7th.

There is no doubt that Israel’s military response to the events of October 7th has seriously impaired the operational ability of Hamas, as well as resulted in the elimination of a multitude of its operatives, including no small number of Hamas’s upper echelon. At the same time, it has taken control over a large area of the Gaza enclave. Nevertheless, for an extended period of time following the ground offensive, Hamas continued to fire missiles into Israel, necessitating the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents, causing them to become refugees in their own land. During the early days following the terrorist onslaught and the sadistic murder, sexual molestation, dismemberment and burnings of those in the southern communities, as well as those attending an outdoor festival, there was a broad showing of public support for Israel to pursue the twin objectives of doing away with Hamas and returning the hostages. Regrettably, neither of those objectives has been accomplished. Great expectations that have, as yet, to be accomplished.

The Israeli public was motivated to put politics behind them and to be united behind the government and the IDF. But, within a short period of time, it became necessary to decide which of the dual goals would take priority. The release and return of the hostages became the rallying cry of families and friends of those taken captive. Throughout Israel, from Metula to Eilat, in every public location, inside public buildings, on billboards, on lampposts, in windows and balconies, in newspapers and television news programs, among other places, there were slogans indicating that “together we will win” and similar words to that effect. Alongside the encouragements and calls for the nation to be unified in our efforts, there were posters, advertisements, tee-shirts and a multitude of other items that were quickly disseminated throughout Israel and to a multitude of other countries. In the same locations where signs for unity were posted, there were the banners, posters, advertisements, and other items, such as dog-tag-like necklaces enscribed with “Bring them home, NOW!”, or “We need to get them out of hell”, and various statements along those lines.

The urge for the desired unity quickly evaporated, as the conflict of priorities entered the picture: Rescue of the hostages vs. protection of the nation from a well-armed and well-organized terrorist organization. The division grew over the course of the war and now, there are organized demonstrations throughout the country calling for a hostage deal ‘at any price”, which not so gracefully slid into “new elections now”, “you’re the head, you”re gulity”, “go home, now” (referring to P.M. Netanyahu). The demonstrations against the government, which were carried on for long months before October 7th, have returned, only with a different excuse – or maybe with the same excuse that was hidden behind a convenient alternative.

What did we accomplish? We confirmed that it is not possible to live side by side with a terrorist organization that rules the Gaza Strip. By the same reasoning, and given the involved fighting in Judea and Samaria (“the West Bank” – of the Jordan River), we can’t live side-by-side with the entity known as the “Palestinian Authority”. What did we learn during this time? We learned that Islamic fundamentalism will not tolerate the continued existence of the State of Israel, whose existence prevents the coming of the Islamic Messiah, or Mahdi, and the re-establishment of an Islamic Caliphate headed by Shiite Moslems.

Added to the failure to accomplish Israel’s military goals set at the outset of the war, and to the internal divisions among the population, as well as in the government itself, is the pressure placed on Israel to unilaterally bring about a ceasefire, in order to effectuate a hostage deal AND to enable increased humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza. The unverified casualty figures announced by the Gaza Department of Health, which is under the control of Hamas, have been accepted by governments near and far, not the least of which include our “friends”, the United States, Canada, England and others. They have dictated to us what our priorities should be: protection of civilians and supply of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. 

There is a blindness that has affected our “friends and allies”. If what took place in Israel on October 7th had taken place in their countries, they would have pursued the terrorist organizations with a vengeance, just like they did after September 11th when they pursued Osama bin Laden and when they went after and fought against ISIS. I won’t even discuss the bigoted United Nations – a totally useless organization when it comes to being an effective, impartial peace keeper. 

Are there victims of terrorism? Yes. Are there casualties of war? Yes. Are mistakes made in war? Yes. Should the casualties of war be a reason to stop pursuing the terrorists who slaughtered the victims and generated the need for the surviving victims to pursue their attackers? Definitely not!!! 

Think of it a different way. Terrorists break into YOUR home, rape YOUR women, cuts off the arms and legs of members of some members of YOUR family, they destroy YOUR home and burn to death some members of YOUR family. Then, they kidnap other members of YOUR family and take them to where the terrorists came from and are hiding. It’s YOUR home, YOUR family members. You have both a right and an obligation to pursue them and bring the members of YOUR family back. Nobody is going to do that for you. Israel is a sovereign nation. Terrorists broke through OUR borders, raped, murdered, destroyed and kidnapped OUR people. We not only have the RIGHT TO PURSUE them, BUT THE OBLIGATION TO PURSUE THEM AND TO BRING OUR PEOPLE BACK. In the process of doing so, the terrorists hide behind civilians, set up military operations in hospitals, public buildings, business areas and residential communities. You want the non-combatants to get out of the way, but the terrorists continue to put them between you and them and the civilians become victims of their own terrorist leadership. And then, your close friends tell you that your primary concern should be to protect the people behind whom the terrorists are hiding and that if you don’t listen to them, they’re not going to encourage and support you any more. Now, it’s YOUR decision. What are you going to say? What are you going to do? Is this a fair comparison? Definitely! 

And so, our “fair-weather friends” not only condemn us, while threatening not only to vote against us in the U.N., but also to cut off military aid, unless we do as we are told. 
“United States President Joe Biden said Friday that Israel was heeding his demand to let aid into Gaza, a day after he warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a sharp shift in policy. Asked as he left the White House whether he had threatened to stop military aid to Israel in the call with Netanyahu, Biden replied: ‘I asked them to do what they’re doing’…In a tense call on Thursday, Biden warned Netanyahu that US policy on Israel was dependent on the protection of civilians and aid workers in Gaza, following an Israeli strike that killed seven aid workers.” The call to stop weapons deliveries from the United States to Israel “is increasingly becoming mainstream among Democrats“.

And while there is also an effort in England to get the British government to cease supplying arms to Israel, there is the voice and light of reason from former British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who said that “banning arms sales to Israel would be ‘insane’.”

With a keen understanding of the larger picture, Johnson published a “scathing column” in the British “Daily Mail”, noting that imposing an arms embargo on Israel would give a victory to Hamas, that is not concerned about humanitarian law. He wrote: “If you want an example of the death wish of Western civilisation, I give you the current proposal from members of the British establishment that this country should ban arms sales to Israel. If you want evidence of government madness, it appears that Foreign Office lawyers are busily canvassing the idea — which has not, as far as I can tell, yet been rejected by the Foreign Secretary himself. He seems to have gone into a kind of purdah on the subject…[adding] More alarming still, we are told that an Israeli arms ban is the subject of an active row in Cabinet, with only a handful of ministers positively sticking up for Israel. The contagion has spread pretty wide, and very fast. The proposed embargo is now supported by MPs on all sides, by the former head of MI6, by some former Supreme Court Justices, and by about 600 members of the legal profession, all of them clamouring for us to turn our backs on the only democracy in the Middle East…Let us be clear what it would mean, to ban arms sales now, when Israel is under a greater existential threat than at any time I can remember. If we ban the sale of arms ourselves, it surely follows that we do not think any self-respecting country should be arming the Israelis…And if we are willing everyone, including the U.S., to end their military support, be in no doubt what that means. There is only one logical conclusion. We are willing the military defeat of Israel and the victory of Hamas. Remember that in order to win this conflict, Hamas only has to survive. All they need at the end is to hang on, rebuild, and go again.” [emphasis mine]

While not ignoring the suffering of the people of Gaza, Johnson noted in his article the tactics of Hamas: “They [Hamas] wanted to evoke global feelings of repulsion about events in Israel, and, of course, they wanted to provoke the Israelis into a violent response, because they knew that retaliation would inevitably forfeit sympathy for Israel around the world…That’s why they took the hostages: to give Israel no choice but to fight. That’s why they refuse to give the hostages back. That’s why they prepared so carefully for the war, cynically designing their very defences so as to provoke the greatest loss of Palestinian life, and the greatest possible loss of Western support for Israel...That’s why they built 400 miles of tunnels, and that’s why they made sure to conceal themselves beneath mosques, hospitals, schools and other civilian targets. They are actively using the death and suffering of their own citizens, maximising their pain and grief so as to rally international opinion against Israel — and we are falling for it.“ [emphasis mine] Thank you, Mr. Johnson! At last, there is a clear expression of understanding that seems to have escaped many “leaders” in the Western world, who continue to bury their heads in the sand, while making outrageous demands upon Israel and asserting that the establishment of a so-called “Palestinian” State will solve the long-existing religious war and bring about a lasting peace.

Where do we go from here? Continue to fight with the goal of destroying the military capacity of Hamas (even if their leaders survive), or capitulate to internal and external pressure and make a series of disastrous deals with a thoroughly evil terrorist organization to return all of the surviving hostages, knowing that we will return and fight another day, as if October 7th never happened?

Then there is the threat of Iran to retaliate against Israel for the death of Brigadier General Mohammad Rez Zehdi, a senior military commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, who was the head of the ground operations of Iran in Syria and Lebanon. That is a genuinely worrisome and developing story. The Islamic festival of Eid-ul-Fitr, which marks the end of the month of Ramadan, will take place on Wednesday of this coming week. It would be reasonable to think that Iran will try to carry out its threat against Israel around that time, either alone (which is possible, but doubtful) or together with the Hezbollah, which has over 100,000 missiles pointed in the direction of Israel. May it be that their threats are like clouds without water.

But, we are beginning a new day and a new week.

So remember: Bless, be blessed and be a blessing.

Marvin