1. Overwhelming force
Israel is winning the war. Look southward and see how our heroes are dismantling the cowards of Hamas, neighborhood after neighborhood, street after street, house after house, tunnel after tunnel. Their leader Yahya Sinwar is on the run. Gaza's residents look at the images of the places they left and all they see is ruins. The rockets that were part of our lives for twenty years are almost all gone, and some of our reserve forces have returned home. The IDF is doing things that only a few months ago seemed impossible; this applies not only to the incredible warfare capabilities it has developed, but also to the change in thinking: no part of Gaza remains immune, and mosques, hospitals, schools, and UNRWA institutions, which until recently served as shelters for murderers, are legitimate targets for attack.
The IDF no longer has a policy of containment (a codeword for restraint that undermined our deterrence); it chases down our enemies in the spirit of the battle doctrine of 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" (Psalms 18:38). The spirit our soldiers have shown in battle gives us hope for the release of our sisters and brothers in captivity. It is important to preserve this spirit at the end of the war so that we will achieve quiet and peace. These are the ancient laws of the region, and they are infinitely truer than the Western doctrines that until recently reigned supreme.
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2. We were right, the "experts" were wrong
The think tanks who advise us on what to do on the day after the war are made up of researchers who, like others, were responsible for the concept that led us to October 7: "Hamas is weakened and deterred." Former justice minister and deputy prime minister Haim Ramon published an article this week in which he presented incredulous quotes from the heads of Military Intelligence, who upon leaving the army became heads of prestigious think tanks. One of them said back in 2007 that Israel wanted Hamas to take over Gaza because it could then treat the Strip as a hostile state; he was dismissive of Iran's influence over Hamas, saying it was insignificant as long as Gaza did not have a port. He did not budge from this line, and a few weeks before the massacre he said that Hamas, "which has invested a great deal of effort in rebuilding the Gaza Strip since Operation Guardian of the Walls, generally prefers to leave Gaza out of the conflict."
Another expert, also a former head of Military Intelligence, said a few years ago that Hamas understands that "war will destroy everything it has achieved so far and harm its force buildup," and that therefore a "large-scale war" is "against its interests." A year later, he reiterated his position that Hamas was "very deterred by war... they don't want war."
I heard similar things after Operation Protective Edge from another Military Intelligence chief, who said of that campaign that "it was clear that we were going to a confrontation that would end with Hamas weakened in terms of terrorist capabilities, but still in charge" – that it would be "deterred" and capable of "enforcing a no-fire policy on the other organizations." That, he said, had been the conclusion of "all the analyses that Israel has done, including cabinet discussions."
The names of these former Military Intelligence chiefs are well known but they are not the important thing, what matters is the generic thinking that does not encourage ipcha mistabra – being the devil's advocate. And we haven't even talked about the promises that the disengagement would increase our security (obviously, our enemies saw how we destroyed our own communities, and were deterred). Or the Oslo Accords, the greatest diplomatic and political folly since the establishment of Israel: An ingenious idea to bring gangs of murderers from Tunisia who have sworn to destroy us, then arm them and ask them to protect us – from them. Now that's an idea worthy of at least three Nobel Prizes.
We were left alone to face up to all these experts; everything we warned of happened. We applied a different kind of thinking. The experts spoke the language of logos, a rational Western language that assumes that the considerations of our enemies are similar to ours; that they care about the welfare of their citizens and prefer the good life to military confrontation, especially with a power like Israel. But this region, the cradle of human civilization, still speaks the language of myth, it still retains ancient institutions such as blood vengeance, honor killings, rape of captives, stoning, and religious wars. There is no democracy among our neighbors, no world-renowned universities, and certainly no freedom of research in the humanities and social sciences.
3. Settlement as a component of security
The old concepts included the idea of a Palestinian state. As an answer to this, it is important to return to the basic concepts of the Zionist enterprise in which settlement is a fundamental component of security. The IDF cannot defend us in all places at all times, and without the pioneers of the mountain ridge in Judea and Samaria, we could have been subjected to an attack similar to October 7 in the heart of our main population centers. The thought that we could separate between civilians and the army turned out to be mistaken. All the people are an army and all the country is a front. It isn't just the help that the settlements provide as a base for army operations, the presence of masses of civilians in the area also provides security. The IDF can operate with a relatively small order of battle because Israeli control of the region leans on the presence of hundreds of thousands of Jews who drive along the routes every day and replace a massive military presence. In that way, they give the IDF the possibility to operate on other fronts.
Nevertheless, in some parts, the lie is still perpetuated – as if to say that the need to protect Jews in Samaria led to a reduction in the number of forces in the Gaza envelope on October 7. The cut in the number of forces resulted from the failed conception of Hamas' intentions that I presented above. The simple truth is that the pioneers in Judea and Samaria are what protects the heart of the country. Hatred of the settlers is a reflection of the malignant remnants of pre-October 7 thinking. If we desire life then we must strengthen settlement at every point of conflict. This is critical.
4. Israel were likened to the olive
We are in awe at the heroism of our soldiers and their parents, the mothers and fathers, who encourage them to fight for our home. We are in awe of the volunteerism, the giving, the camaraderie, and the great sense of family that beats in the heart of the public, which pushes its leaders not to stop until we have achieved complete victory. This Sabbath we read in the Torah portion Tetzaveh (command): "And you shall command the children of Israel, and they shall bring you pure olive oil, pressed for illumination, to kindle a lamp continually" (Exodus 27:20). I thought about this in the context of the war and the spiritual ascension of the people. Our prophets likened the People of Israel to the olive. Jeremiah (11:16) says: "The Lord called your name a flourishing olive tree, fair of fruit and form."
Our sages explain in the Midrash: "…just as the olive, while it is on the tree one picks it, then one takes it down from the tree and it is beaten, and after it is beaten, it is taken up to the olive press and placed into the mill where one grinds it, then one surrounds it with ropes, brings stones, and then they produce their oil. So too, Israel: idolaters come and beat them from place to place, incarcerate them, bind them in chains, and surround them with fences. Then they repent and the Holy One blessed be He answers them" (Shemot Raba 36:1). Among the olive's features is that it can rejuvenate itself after a fire or being chopped down. Think of the olive branch that the dove brought back after the flood. The olive tree is evergreen and our sages learned from this of the eternity of the People of Israel: "… just as the leaves of an olive tree never fall off, neither in the summer nor in the rainy season, so too, the Jewish people will never be nullified, neither in this world nor the world-to-come."
So in order to bring out the light of the excellent oil within us, do we need to be beaten? Let us hope not. In any event, living in this special period and in view of the pure oil that flows from us in these challenging times we can bear witness that our sages spoke truth. "To remember, not only for worse, troubled days" (Natan Alterman).
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