1.
Operation Guardian of the Walls – another sanitized name for the ongoing campaign against Gaza's Arabs – ended in May 2021 with a whimper, accompanied by riots against Jews in mixed cities, as if we were in 1921 rather than 2021. The Israeli public was happy to return to routine and chose to believe security and government officials that Hamas had suffered a severe blow and was more deterred than ever. How naive we were.
Today, we know this was a deception by Hamas. From their perspective, "Sword of Jerusalem," as they called the campaign, was a success. They managed to mobilize the "internal Arabs" – Arab citizens of Israel – to riot against Jews. The ultimate goal was to unite all fronts: in the south (Hamas), north (Hezbollah), east (Judea and Samaria), Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and of course, Iran.
2.
In a recent study published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and State Affairs, Jonathan Dachoach-Halevi lays out hundreds of open-source enemy materials from before October 7, whose reading disturbs sleep as it demonstrates the gap between the clear signs and our arrogant blindness.
The thought that our enemies share a similar way of thinking to ours is the product of "progressive" thinking more than the old colonialist perception (which saw natives as primitive). It assumes our regional enemies hold similar values and worldview to ours: freedom fighters seeking a piece of land to establish their own state alongside Israel, and once given their desire, would cease fighting us. Like us, they, too, prefer their welfare over military fantasies that end in destruction and ruin. If we just let them work in Israel, they would have no interest in destroying their subjects' welfare in a military adventure. This isn't naivety; it's an intellectual crime.
3.
"I don't understand what interest they (the Egyptians) have in coming here in this heat." The words Assi Dyan put in the mouth of the mythological Sergio in the famous Israeli movie "Givat Halfon", cynically summarized our arrogant blindness regarding our enemies' true intentions. Interest can be quantified and understood. Liberal economics is built on the human interest to profit and improve our living conditions, and therefore ensures both sides profit so mutual interest fertilizes trade and strengthens market forces.
Interest lies in the realm of logos, within rational thinking that weighs reward against loss. Our historic national memory is full of days of mourning over physical and national destruction. We agreed, for example, to give up our aspirations in order to escape the terror of death. In 1937, the Peel Commission proposed dividing the western part of the land of Israel : Arabs were given 75% of the territory and we only 17 (Jerusalem was meant to remain under international control). Europe was burning and there were signs of impending disaster for Jews, so the Zionist establishment's response was positive. The Arabs rejected it. Of course. It wasn't interest that drove them, but the foundational story that this was Muslim holy land and their religious belief in their ability to destroy us. Look what happens in the current war: Despite their destruction, they cling to their principles and belief in our destruction. It's not the destruction of homes or the death of residents that will deter them (logos), but the loss of their land (mythos).
4.
About four months after Hamas's "defeat" in Operation Guardian of the Walls and the "deterrence" we achieved against it, Yahya Sinwar organized the "Conference for Ensuring the End of Days" in September 2021. Participants discussed how they would manage the Palestinian state after its "liberation" from Israel. They did not speak about a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders, but a state in the place of Israel, which means the whole area between the Jorden River and the Mediterranean Sea. The conference was public. We dismissed it, as usual. In hindsight, are people who gather right after a military confrontation to discuss the day after the enemy state's destruction holders of a defeated consciousness? Such a conference actually indicates hope and belief in their victory.
In Sinwar's speech read at the conference, it was said that "the campaign for liberation and return to Palestine has never been closer." He supported preparing for the "day after" and suggested learning from "Sword of Jerusalem" ("Guardian of Walls"), a campaign that "did not break out suddenly" but was prepared for over years of "planning, training, and military and intelligence development." He added: "The conflict can only end by implementing the promise of victory and control that Allah gave us so that our people live with dignity in their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. For this, we work hard and strive very much above ground and in its depths, in the heart of the sea, and in the heights of the sky... We (already) see the liberation with our own eyes, and therefore prepare for what will come after."
When reading the hundreds of sources that Dachoch-Halevi brings in his research, one understands that these are not empty, boastful words but a serious and persistent method intended to realize the vision of the holocaust they designated for us.
5.
The principles document published at the conference's end stated, among other things: "Immediately upon liberation (of Palestine, meaning Israel's destruction), the liberation forces will publish a Palestinian independence document that will include Palestinian principles and emphasize the Palestinian national identity and its Arab, Islamic, regional and international depth... It will be a historic document... a direct continuation of Omar ibn al-Khattab's covenant and Saladin's announcement when he liberated the Al-Aqsa Mosque."
This is how our enemies see themselves: as successors to the pioneer of Muslim conquest in our land, Omar ibn al-Khattab who in 638 had the Christians (Byzantines) sign a surrender treaty in Jerusalem, and of Saladin, the other conqueror of Jerusalem, who also defeated the Christians (Crusaders) in 1187. The West values studying and researching history, but mainly as knowledge about the past. In contrast, in the Middle East, history isn't just an object of research, but exists and is present here and now. We, who light Hanukkah candles, understand this: "In those days, at this time."
Facing our historical, ideological, and religious depth stand our enemies with their own historical, ideological, and religious depth. The Hamas Charter (1987), the terror organization's ideological and political document, includes two principles: commitment to Israel's destruction, and commitment to killing Jews wherever they are. The charter reminds me Mein Kampf, a well-known document written in German about a hundred years ago, that was the basis for Nazi policy.
6.
Our existence depends on understanding that bridging these perspectives is impossible. After the destruction of the First Temple (586 BCE), Tyre rejoiced at Jerusalem's annihilation, as described by the prophet Ezekiel: "...because Tyre has said concerning Jerusalem, 'Aha! The gateway of the peoples is broken; she has turned to me; I will be filled, now that she is laid waste.'" Our sages formulated a rule: "Tyre was filled only from Jerusalem's destruction. If one is full, the other is destroyed" and vice versa. Our neighbors want our destruction, not reconciliation. There is no positive acceptance of our existence in the discourse of Gaza's or Judea and Samaria's Arabs, nor among the rest of the region. At best, it's recognition of our strength until the moment we weaken, God forbid. The thought that we can reconcile with our enemies in a way that they'll accept our existence as legitimate is an intellectual crime, as it doesn't evaluate our enemies according to their own consciousness! This perception was the moral basis for the old conception that led to October 7.
Our sages taught that spiritual repentance occurs when we reach the same situation, where we sinned in the past, but behave differently. This is how we prove we've learned the lesson. Our existence depends on deepening our roots and strengthening the historical and ideological consciousness of the people dwelling in Zion. Bible and history studies in state schools must not be optional but mandatory for matriculation exams. If only they would study the Oral Torah too. It's truly a matter of our survival.
