1.
The misconception lives and breathes. Hezbollah has embarked on a war of annihilation against us, and on Sunday we allowed them to bury their leader, the persecutor of Jews. This was an enemy gathering calling for our destruction. We have shamefully become accustomed to it. Isn't it time to change the rules dictated by our enemies?
The conception that led us to October 7 was not the assumption that Hamas was deterred and therefore would not attack – that was just its practical expression. It is a worldview, justified and detailed in thousands of studies, position papers and research books, according to which our enemies think similarly to us. They "prefer the suffering of peace over the suffering of war," as Israelis continue to recite with reckless naivety, who in their consciousness still live in October 6.
2.
This misconception was the soul of the Oslo Accords, which assumed that at the heart of the conflict there are two national movements, and if each movement gets half of what it wants, we will achieve peace. Logic says: "Two people holding a garment, one saying it's all mine and the other saying it's all mine – they shall divide it" (Babylonian Talmud, Baba Mezia 2a). After all, we thought, the other side also wants a good future for their children.
Well, while we recognized the Palestinian nationality – although it was invented to wage war against us – the other side never recognized Jews as a nationality, as a people entitled to national self-determination in their historical homeland.
And we're not talking about Hamas, but about the Palestinian Authority, which in Article 20 of its charter states that Jews are not a nation but a religion. This is a genocidal article: a group of terrorists in suits, paying salaries to Jewish murderers as part of their annual budget, erases us from the family of nations after more than 3,300 years as a people. That is the basic assumption: if we just talk, convince, and explain, we can compromise and reach peace and coexistence and quiet and other empty terms like cardboard props in an absurd play, which blinded us from seeing the cruel reality clearly
3.
Based on this perception, security agencies and Israeli governments for generations promoted the idea of economy in exchange for quiet. Current coalition critics repeat that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governments allowed money transfers to Hamas from Qatar. This is true, but everyone thought that way. I served as ambassador under the Lapid and Bennett government as well, and was asked to promote the plan of then Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, which was sent to all our embassies, concerning "economy for security in Gaza." In September 2021, Lapid detailed: "We need to go for a multi-year, large move of economy for security. This is a more realistic version of what was previously called 'reconstruction for demilitarization.' The purpose of such a move is to create stability on both sides of the border – security, civilian, economic and political."
He also said: "If Gaza residents want to live, they will have to demand that Hamas maintain quiet as long as a process of building and rehabilitation takes place." At the end of his remarks, he noted: "Prime Minister Bennett and Defense Minister Gantz know the position and support the principle behind it." This was the conception shared by the security, bureaucratic and political establishment. True, there were those who opposed it, but unfortunately they were scorned and presented as "extremists" and "messianic" and warmongers.
On December 6, 2022, N12 reporter Sapir Lipkin published a story about Mohammed al-Emadi, the Qatari envoy for Gaza reconstruction. She talked about the $30 million he distributes "every month to about 100,000 needy families in the Strip to create quiet." Lipkin noted that "Hamas has already become addicted to this grant," and added: "The defense establishment continues to lead steps for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip... based on the perception that civilian measures are the key to security quiet and stability in the region." Conception.
4.
No more. Remember how the barbarians murdered with their own hands the toddlers Kfir and Ariel Bibas and their mother Shiri, and then abused their pure bodies to present them as if they were killed by IDF bombing. This is the pinnacle of their achievements – murdering Jewish babies – and for this they are willing to be destroyed and live in mud. They don't think like us. "For their rock is not like our Rock, and our enemies are (not) foolish" (Deuteronomy 32:31). No economic rehabilitation will solve the problem. The moment they can, they will try to slaughter us again, even if they know they will be destroyed by that. We must not return to the conception.
