Time to Go It Alone

Live From the War in Israel Day 37

I had a very depressing weekend. I have already gotten to the point where I will barely watch live newscasts, and I limit my reading of the news to four times a day (630, 1300, 1800, 2300). That has helped, but the news is the news. I have said from the beginning of the war that while we have many things to pray for (return of the hostages, keeping our troops safe), my main worry is that the world would stop us before we had the chance to finish our main objective, the destruction of Hamas as a military threat.

This war with Hamas is very different than any in the past. That is because this time, they are winning. It is clear to everyone that everything that they did was done with a purpose. They knew what our response would be, and they knew how the world would react to that response. Just yesterday, Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, announced that although what happened on October 7th was horrible, “De facto - today, civilians are bombed - de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So, there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So, we do urge Israel to stop." I don’t think Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could have said it any better.

I will not go into the legality of what can and can’t be done, according to international law, in a time of war (short answer, despite the civilian casualties, Israel follows it) but for the president of one of the world's largest democracies to attack Israel in this way, proves the point that Hamas is winning. The president of France is now siding with Iran, Russia, and the rest making the claim, without any proof or context, that Israel is committing war crimes. What does he think this will do to the unprecedented antisemitism in his country? Is that how he plans on fixing it?

As the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said yesterday, no one supports Israel any longer except the USA and its “follower” the UK. He pointed out the large rallies in the USA, Britain, France, as proof that the world is aligned with him. He is correct and it is all going according to the plan. We all know what would happen if any of those countries were attacked, but Israel is not allowed to defend itself. Terrorists can come over our border, rape, behead, immolate, and desecrate women, children, the elderly, and our soldiers, and as long as they hide among “innocent” civilians (I will share my thoughts on this another time), they get a pass. This will keep happening again and again until Hamas is removed. There is no choice. If we fold to the pressure, what is to stop some of the 35,000 Palestinians in Hebron from slaughtering the 700 Jews who live there? They can overwhelm the soldiers if they choose, and we will not be able to retaliate. A more likely scenario is that Hezbollah will attack the Galil, and try to overrun the communities there. Then they will run back, hide under the Lebanese civilians and despite what our leadership is saying now, we will not be able to send Lebanon to the stone age. The world will not let us.

So according to world opinion, we will need to live with the possibility of all of these scenarios forever. This is not an option. The only option is to root out Hamas completely and prove to our neighbors to the north, and everyone else, that we will not allow the slaughter of our civilians. Public opinion will not save them. Unfortunately, you must understand that we are not close to achieving our goal. I am sure that the leadership of Hamas and the majority of their fighters are now in south Gaza. If we clear Hamas out north Gaza, what will we do, move everyone back north? What would Macron and the rest of the Hamas apologists say then? This is why I was depressed. I know what we MUST do in order to survive as a country and that is to be willing to go it alone. That is a sacrifice I am willing to make. If we let outside influences stop us in this mission, we will never be safe again.

Today, when I got my morning news fix, I read that Bibi had said the same thing. He said “no international pressure, no false allegations about IDF soldiers and our state, will impact Israel’s insistence on protecting itself”. Israel will “stand firm against the world if necessary.” Defense Minister Galant added (something I was thinking the other day), “I want to say to those European leaders who criticize us: the State of Israel and the people of Israel in 2023 are not in the year 1943.” I am not a Bibi fan, and I am not sure how long he will be able to stand his ground, but I must admit, I am feeling a bit better today.

---