On Saturday, December 28th, 2008, Israel started Operation Lead Cast to bring an end to the constant bombardment of its South by Hamas from Gaza. The following Saturday the second phase of the Operation started, with a land move into Gaza. One Druze soldier was killed at the first stage. Another soldier was killed as the second stage commenced. Today three soldiers were killed and one critically injured by friendly fire.
Mounting criticism blames Israel that its dead and wounded pale in comparison to the more than 500 dead Gazans (of whom most are terrorists, others are the civilians amidst whom the terrorists operate and hide). Israel is told that mortar shells and rockets (some seventy to a hundred a day) are meaningless when compared with its military might – a single F16 warplane up above that annihilates Gaza. This is exactly the point--it does not.
Had Israel wanted to use the Rule of Proportionality, then every rocket fired from Gaza toward civilian population centers aimed to inflict as much death and destruction would have been met with an equal response. Israel has never considered "proportionality." It must protect its citizens living their daily lives, but in so doing it makes sure to minimize the number of innocent casualties.
Israel uses warning systems to alert those civilians in Gaza before it strikes. Warnings include phone calls, printed material and radio broadcasts. Much of their warning system is of little or no avail since Hamas holds the Gazans captive--human shields and framework for its glory, its holy war. Every casualty becomes in death a soldier in the global fight, its body parts paraded, its pictures posted on the internet, at times its body exhumed from freshly dug graves and paraded, once again, in the streets of Gaza for the international press, who love it.
Who is caught in the middle? Israelis who are paying with their sanity, their lives disrupted. Their kids cannot go to school this second week, their businesses are on hold. A population of more than nine hundred thousand people of the south being held hostage – Collective Punishment of sorts? – subjected to a barrage of rockets that can hit any minute, often unannounced (or at best with only a few seconds warning). Rockets kill and maim and destroy. They also have lasting psychological effects. We must not forget it is a war, not a bully trying to hit another kid in a playground.
The Gazans, too, are caught in this fight to destroy Israel. Gazans understand what is good for them--and that is to live in peace with Israel. This is probably the biggest tragedy of all--a generation lost due to self-created hatred. Gazans were employed in hothouses in Jewish towns (later to become terrorist training camps), they received the best medical treatment in the world in Israeli hospitals like Soroka in Beer Sheva (the capital of the Negev, Israel's southern region), trade and commerce were conducted--they used to work in Israel and develop lifelong relationships with their Israeli neighbors.
Until a new idea was seeded--the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel. Gazans were taken hostage by a movement that calls--in its Charter--to destroy Israel. Relationships collapsed--people became afraid of each other. Hothouses and flourishing Jewish communities became rubble. Following the destruction of every remain of modern civilization, technology and science, celebrations were held, broadcasted on satellite feed for the whole Arab world to enjoy. Israel unilaterally left, Hamas-led Gazans danced in the streets, replacing all that is good in the world with death and destruction.
Children were taught to hate from a very early age. Cartoons and hour-long programs talk about the Zionist enemy, embedding the idea that Jews need to be exterminated, eliminated, gone from this Earth.
Rivers of money found their way to the Gaza gorge, an abyss filled with hatred and evil. Money was used to glorify terrorists who would blow themselves up with the Zionist enemy--women and children eating at a Pizza place, shopping at a mall or studying holy scriptures at a religious seminary. Soccer games and fields were named in honor of such martyrs, embodying the idea that it is a legitimate form of "resistance."
"Resistence," a play on words: This was a war, well fought in the realm of world public opinion. To the Western World it was said that "killing innocent people is forbidden by the Qur'an." It may be forbidden, but the sentence was stopped in its midst: It is only forbidden as long as the person blowing herself or himself up are believers and the victims are believers. It is highly encouraged when the victims are Christians or Jews or other non-believers.
Instead of building Gaza into the like of Cannes in the French Riviera, using the billions of Euros from Eurabia, Gazans spent the money in a race to turn Gaza into a huge ammunition cache. Instead of improving their lives, building drainage systems and waste water recycling plants, money was stolen, corruption became commonplace. Instead of focusing on education, medicine, science, technology, manufacturing, creativity and advacement, Gazans turned Gaza into an Evil Empire, into the manifestation of Hell on Earth.
Below the surface, a city of tunnels was built. A city "under siege" saw the easy transfer of thousands of tons of ammunition smuggled into Gaza along with Iranian war specialists and those returning from training in Iran and elsewhere. Gaza was not preparing for Life, it was getting ready to be the Valley of Death.
Children, described by Arlene Peck, had an "old look" in their eyes. Their childhood stolen, the only idea they could fathom is becoming a Shaid (martyr) by killing as many Jews as possible--Jews, the likes of "pigs and apes." I doubt any of these children has ever seen a Jew, an Israeli, me--our image is the manifestation of body parts, areas smeared with blood, and the ascension to a convoluted heaven with 72 virgins awaiting the little Shaid's arrival.
Prepare truckloads with body bags. Gaza is the Valley of Death. Psalms 23:4 tells us that even if I walk in the Valley of Death, I will not be afraid of Evil since G-d is with me. Israel is the Army of Light, Good fighting against the worse evil human kind has seen since the Nazis. From the ashes of the Holocaust we rose, and Israel will not allow any enemy, working under the guise of any convoluted interpretation of any religion, to threaten its existence. We walk unafraid, proud, careful; we know what is at stake and we are ready to give everything we have--our lives--to ensure Good prevails.
In Gaza day became night, engulfed with the darkness of the Devil's rule. In Gaza, night became day, lighted by the flames of the eternal fire of Evil. Gaza is Israel's test--for Israel must not fail. Gaza is the testing ground--will Israel be able to stand among the Forces of Evil and subdue them? The World is being tested--will it have the resolve to save itself? The European Union under the leadership this year of the Czech Republic has started an internal debate if this is indeed the case (Israel fight for its own struggle). Egypt has understood the threat and is today the only country who is turning toward Israel's side.
Could we ever have imagined that the laboratory in which the World will be tested--can it survive or not--would be in Gaza in our lifetime? It is 2009, and the battle rages on, all experiments are now conducted in a small strip of land, with more than a million inhabitants no one ever wanted--not Egypt, not Israel, not them, themselves. We are at a race against time--if the experiment fails, if we do not have the resolve and conviction to continue, Israel will fall, and after it the Free World.
Stand strong, soldiers of Israel. Keep focused, leaders of a nation. You are our frontline. Wake up world--Israel is fighting for you. Give it the tools it needs, give Israel the time to complete the task--for your own sake, if not for Israel's.
