1. No normal entity
On Tuesday, columnist Nahum Barnea wrote an article in which he said that Israel would not be able to continue "the current round of fighting on the ground in Khan Younis for more than 10 days to two weeks." The combination of two million displaced Gazans together with American pressure, "dictated restrictions on the operation." Barnea was probably expressing the American position and apparently the view of some among the chiefs of staff. This is a dangerous view. Hamas understands that it needs to hold on just a little bit more and then it will all be over. In the language of the Middle East, this would spell a resounding defeat for Israel – God forbid.
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The Israeli public understands in the wake of October 7 that we are not dealing with a normal entity that seeks territory or political independence, but with savages whose thirst for blood is only equaled by their passion to rape our daughters, and for whom the population of Gaza is not worthy of life, but just to serve as human shields. As for Israelis, in Hamas' eyes, they all deserve to die. One cannot compromise with an entity whose foundational charter believes in devotion to the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews –a charter that is a modern-day Mein Kampf. If we were to do so it would be a perpetual source of tragedy and regret; it would be as if the Allies had stopped fighting the Nazis as they invaded Europe.
In the Middle East, victory must be seen to be overwhelming and must resonate in a way the enemy understands and according to its codes, not something that needs to be interpreted by pundits in television studios. We must achieve such a victory even if we must fight on for many more months. We cannot suffice with eliminating ten thousand Hamas terrorists and leaving another twenty thousand free to operate in the Gaza Strip. Hamas must be eradicated, not just dealt a heavy blow. This is our moral duty to the victims, to the residents of the southern communities, to all the citizens of Israel, and to the soldiers of the IDF who putting their lives at risk. The victory that we must achieve, in the language of the region, can be found in our ancient sources, in the military doctrine of the army of Israel under King David: "I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back till I destroyed them. I struck them down, and they could rise no more; they lay fallen at my feet… I wiped out my foes. I ground them fine as windswept dust" (Psalms 18:38-43).
Only then perhaps we will have a chance at peace, when they understand what price those who did to us as Hamas will pay. In the meantime, we must fight on with full force.
2. Failed experiments
The debate over whether the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria contribute to the security of the state is one that seems to never end. As hard as it may be to believe, even after the October 7 massacre, there are still those who believe that the Palestinian Authority can be put in charge of Gaza and a Palestinian state established on the Samarian hills and in Judea.
Let's go back in time to two experiments. In 2005, we withdrew from the Gaza Strip back to the international border, we demolished our communities, dug up our dead, and relied on technology to protect us from danger. Since then, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have fired thousands of rockets and missiles at us from Gaza, we have fought several bloody campaigns (with creative names such as Cast Lead, Protective Edge, Guardian of the Walls, and others), and we paid a price with the lives of soldiers and civilians. Not to mention the enormous economic damage that has been caused since the disengagement. After October 7, it seemed that we had lost our innocence and thus we launched what we knew would be a long war in Gaza.
In 2002, in Operation Defensive Shield, we retook control of Judea and Samaria, we established positions on the outskirts of the Palestinian towns and strengthened the defense of Jewish communities. We do not intervene in the lives of the residents of the Palestinian Authority – as long as they do not try to harm us. Our presence there, with the control it brings over territory, the intelligence we can gather, and the defensive capabilities it gives us is far more efficient than all the technological means we relied upon along the Gaza border.
The IDF isn't the only Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria. No less importantly, Israeli civilians, pioneers, Jews who settled in the ancient homeland, the cradle of our nation, are there, holding on to the good land. The soldiers see who they are defending, and because they are deployed across the territory they are able to thwart processes similar to those that took place in Gaza and thus prevent the establishment of a Hamas-Nazi entity on the mountain ridge a stone's throw away from Israel's densely populated center. My hometown of Rehovot is 70 meters above sea level; Ramallah is 900 meters above sea level. Try to defend yourself with that kind of difference in elevation.
Moreover, a comparison between the Hamas charter and that of Fatah shows that there are only tactical differences between Hamas and the largest group within the Palestinian Authority. The most important similarity between them is that they share a commitment to the destruction of Israel. Article 20 of the PA Charter erases the Jewish people from the family of nations. It is a genocidal clause. The PA pays salaries to murderers of Jews according to the number of people they have murdered. If anyone shares the perverse belief in bringing the PA to Gaza after the collapse of Hamas, then salaries will also be paid to terrorists who raped our daughters, beheaded our sons, and burned our children alive. Payment to murderers of Jews is an official law of the "moderate" PA. Let's hope that after October 7, the number of naive innocents has dwindled; The difference between Hamas and the PA is in the ability to harm us. Our pioneers of the Samarian hills are our safety belt
3. Victory and a state or the miracle of the oil?
Today is Hanukkah. For some 300 years, we celebrated the victories over the Seleucid Empire (from Antiochus IV Epiphanes onwards) in the revolt that began in 167 BCE, and the establishment of an independent Jewish state in 142 BCE by Simon the Hasmonean. Maimonides, in his introduction to the laws of Hanukkah, emphasizes the political dimension: "And the kingdom returned to Israel for more than two hundred years, until the second destruction." The subsequent revolts against Rome were inspired by the victories of the Hasmoneans.
The failed Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE brought disaster upon the Jewish population, hundreds of communities were razed to the ground, and about half a million (!) Jews were killed. The emperor Hadrian punished the Jews by erasing from Roman documents all trace of the name of the land "Judah" and in its place resurrected the name "Palestine" which he had become aware of from the Greek historian Herodotus, who wrote about the Philistine sea peoples who disappeared from the region hundreds of years before Hadrian.
Our Sages of blessed memory understood that one more rebellion like that and we are lost. Since then, the original Books of Maccabees disappeared and with them the political and military significance of Hanukkah. The Mishnah and the Midrash contain almost no reference to Hanukkah. What remained was the miracle of the oil (which is mentioned in the Talmud) to celebrate in our exile. The miracle of the oil symbolizes purity of spirit, the wisdom and love of learning of our people, and how we maintained our culture and religion amongst the nations. In recent generations, we have translated the Books of Maccabees (the name according to some derives from the Biblical word for hammer: maccevet) written originally in Hebrew and returned them to their true owners. From the spirit of the Maccabees, we drew the courage to be resurrected in our homeland and to revive the independent Jewish state of Israel. In the current war, we have seen a new generation of Maccabees, heroes who revived the spirit of the people by giving their own lives and in their words repeated the heroic speeches of the Hasmoneans.
Addressing his soldiers who stood in awe and trepidation at the great Seleucid army they were about to face on their first buttle at Beth Horon (Road 443 of today), Judah Maccabee said: "It is no hard matter for many to be shut up in the hands of a few; and with the God of heaven it is all one, to deliver with a great multitude or a small company: For the victory of battle standeth not in the multitude of a host; but strength cometh from heaven. They come against us in much pride and iniquity to destroy us, and our wives and children, and to spoil us: But we fight for our lives and our laws. Wherefore the Lord himself will overthrow them before our face: and as for you, be ye not afraid of them" (1Maccabbes 3:18-22). Bayamim hahem bazman hazeh. In ancient days and in our times.
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