Tag Archives: gaza

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

The return of Ran Gvili H”YD for burial in Israel is a source of great relief and catharsis for all Jews. His personal story, heroism, and self-sacrifice are so compelling that it could easily epitomize the courage and resilience exhibited by our entire nation during this difficult period. For the first time in several decades, no Jew is being held hostage in Gaza or Lebanon, an achievement it itself, and something our enemies know quite well. His return fulfills one of the three war objectives set forth by PM Netanyahu who deserves enormous credit for clinging steadfastly to this one despite intense pressure to settle.

Ran’s repatriation should also remind us of the sheer cruelty of our enemy – brutal mass murderers and revolting ghouls, who torture, maim, and murder, and then callously retain the bodies of the deceased. That enemy might have been ravaged but it has not yet been defeated – and the pathway towards achieving the other war aims – disarming and dismantling Hamas – are strewn with obstacles and dangers, often born of the naïveté with which some of our interlocutors perceive our enemies. One pathway is staring right at us.

The odds of President Trump’s Board of Peace succeeding are less than the odds of Greenland becoming the 52^nd state of the United States (after Canada becomes the 51^st). It is not only because it is a vanity project that will not survive beyond Trump’s presidency and will likely dissipate long before then accompanied by the fanfare of the numerous synthetic successes it has achieved. The Board of Peace will fail because it possesses little understanding of the dynamics of the Middle East – and much of the rest of the world – and is comprised of enough rogue nations that it already has sown the seeds of its own collapse.

It is undeniable that the Board of Peace fills the vacuum caused by Israel’s failure to articulate a vision for Gaza beyond generalities and, worse, Israel’s reluctance to do what is necessary to ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel’s security or existence, i.e., sovereignty, resettlement of Gazans who wish to leave, and settlement of Jews who wish to live there. This disinclination to utterly transform the Gazan part of the conflict guarantees that the recent war was just another round and sometime in the future we will be forced to again fight the same people and their heirs over the same territory and its latest occupiers.

Indeed, the Board of Peace is almost designed to ensure that the conflict will persist. The mere fact that countries such as Qatar and Turkey, enemies of Israel and funders and protectors of Hamas, are part of the Board is a macabre joke at our expense. Steve Witkoff, perhaps others on his team, if not bought and paid for by Qatar, are at least rented by them. He seems unconcerned about the true nature of Qatar but his nocturnal dreams of peace and prosperity are our living nightmare.

The Gaza Board is another farce, filled with assorted Jew haters, scoundrels, reprobates, and a few good men, all assembled on the risible notion that a Gaza with the same Jew-hating, genocidal citizenry can be remade into luxury resort to which vacationers will flock. This will happen shortly after the unnamed nations that have promised billions of dollars for Gazan reconstruction pony up. Any day now. Perhaps an impressive show of confidence would be if the Americans moved their Gaza supervision base from Kiryat Gat in Israel to… Gaza itself, where, if anywhere, it belongs.

A good start for Israel would be drawing a red line against the introduction of any troops from Qatar, Turkey, Russia and other nations whose interests are inimical to ours and then dismissing any practical suggestions from those countries because they are invariably intended to weaken us, preserve Hamas, and prolong the conflict. Already, despite our government’s protestations to the contrary, elements of the Palestinian Authority were granted influence over Gaza’s direction and future. Whatever the spin, that mocks the sacrifices of our soldiers who would have fought, seemingly, to restore Gaza to PA, and ultimately Hamas, control.

Perhaps the time has come to state the obvious, something that the nations of the world have to tap dance around out of fear and intimidation. Assuming that President Trump cannot impose tariffs on me, it bears declaring the following. If all that Trump did was free the remaining hostages we would have said Dayenu, it would have been enough. It is to his eternal credit. But he has done so much more – recognizing Yerushalayim as our capital city, moving the embassy there, recognizing the Golan, declaring that Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria do not violate international law, resupplying Israel as soon as he took office, bombing the Iranian reactors, providing diplomatic coverage at the UN, etc. Dayenu, indeed.

Nevertheless, President Trump is a showman, an entertainer, whose blustery rhetoric often has little connection to reality. No, Mr. President, Israel created the Iron Dome, not the United States; no, you have not settled eight wars (or nine, if you count that Trump averted the almost war between the US and Denmark); no, you didn’t free all the hostages (almost 200, living and murdered, were freed before you became president); no, the United States is not the “hottest” country in the world (its economic engine is being fueled by trillions of dollars of deficit spending that has devastated the dollar’s value and cannot be repaid); no, you didn’t win by a “landslide” in 2024, 2020, or 2016 (in two elections, you squeaked out a victory by barely winning several states, and in 2020, your opponent similarly squeaked out a victory by barely winning several states, or so the evidence indicates); and the $18 trillion in foreign investment about which you boasted has not arrived and likely never will. In a world governed by appearances, not reality, other countries can play that game as well.

In the most recent and egregious example of careless magniloquence, Trump promised Iranians rebelling against their corrupt and brutal government that “help was on the way” and Iran will be “hit very strong” if the Iranian regime starts massacring its citizens. Well, in exchange for empty promises from Iran not to publicly hang eight hundred dissidents – who made such a promise is unknown – those eight hundred dissidents were not publicly hanged but reportedly privately shot. The Iranian civilian death toll has surpassed 30,000 people and is likely far more than that, and help is still not on the way.

Anyone who thinks that President Trump will endanger American lives in order to overthrow the Iranian regime is dreaming. If anything, he will take the safest, more risk-free approach, bombing targets from the air which is unlikely to topple the Ayatollah. And even if the Ayatollah’s rule collapses because of air attacks accompanied by the most important element of a rebellion – the Iranian military turns on its rulers – the likelihood is that Trump will be quite content to have one dictator (the Ayatollah) replaced by another dictator (some Iranian general) who professes however cagily his support for Trump and America, just as the thug, mass murdering Ahmed al-Sharaa has done in Syria (massacring Kurds while retaining US support and funding).

This would be identical to what happened in Venezuela, where dictator Maduro was captured and imprisoned by the US, only to be exchanged for another dictator, Delcy Rodriguez, who still torments her people but has now pledged allegiance to the US. I cannot help but wonder if Trump rejected the overtures of María Corina Machado, the popular opposition leader, because (in his mind) she won his Nobel Peace Prize. That would be petty, would it not? And how will Trump respond if the Nobel Committee awards this year’s Peace Prize to Steve Witkoff? We may well find out.

But Conchado certainly has more support in Venezuela than does the Shah’s son and heir-to-the-throne in Iran. Regime change in Iran that swaps one hater of Israel in a turban with another hater of Israel in a military beret does not help us that much, nor will that new leader’s promises about Iran’s nuclear ambitions count for much in the real world. Those promises, though, will play well in the ersatz world of proclamations, declarations, signing ceremonies, and assertions that peace, love, and eternal sunshine have broken out across the globe.

Israel has to be grateful to President Trump but also assertive about protecting our interests. There is a short window of opportunity, as Trump is likely to be severely weakened as president after the midterm elections this fall. And Trump’s successor – whether Democrat or Republican – is extremely unlikely to be as viscerally supportive of Israel as is Trump, even if it is sometimes just on the surface and not as much behind closed doors. No conceivable Democratic candidate will be as unabashedly pro-Israel and the Republican party is showing increasing signs of fracture on this issue as well.

Moreover, it is good to remind ourselves even outside of the daily prayers that we are “not to trust in princes, in a human being who has no salvation” (Tehillim 146:3). For, as the medieval commentator Radak notes, “if not for G-d’s will, no human has the power to save another from his troubles. Only G-d saves.” The real G-d, not the pretenders who claim divine powers.

Well, the Lord has blessed our generation with multiple opportunities to conquer, possess, and settle the land that He promised our forefathers. We have seized some of those opportunities but largely squandered many others, consistently surrendering to our enemies the territory from which they attacked us, hoping for a better outcome, rather than just enjoying the bounty that G-d granted us and building thereon a country worthy of our destiny.

Politicians who do not perceive that have outlived their usefulness. Those who do should receive the support of a grateful and faithful nation. And such truly honors the sacrifices of all our heroines and heroes, including Ran Gvili HY”D.

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

If past is prologue, Israel is entering a period as dangerous, if not more so, than actual wartime. We are not strangers to the phenomenon of winning wars, losing the subsequent negotiations, and winding up in a much worse strategic position than when the hostilities ended. We have withdrawn from Gaza already five times since 1948. The boundaries at the conclusion of the Six Day War have mostly disappeared into the sands of history.

The Sinai Peninsula has been surrendered several times, the last in return for its demilitarization. That buffer zone is also gone, as the Egyptian Army has returned in force to the Sinai. The great Arab and Western summit several weeks at Sharm el Sheikh recalled for me that Ron Eliran song, after the Six Day War, in which we purported to return “to Sharm el Sheikh a second time but it is in our hearts always.” Maybe in our hearts – but not the world’s maps or consciousness. Few remember that Israel captured Sharm el Sheikh twice and then forfeited it.

It should not be lost on anyone that we just fought a war on multiple fronts and the results were decisive on all fronts – except the one which launched the war, Gaza. We achieved great strategic advances in Iran, whose nuclear program was arrested and for the moment neutralized; in Syria, where Assad is gone, Israel commands the Golan, Hermon, and points beyond; Yemen has been (at least) temporarily defanged; and in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has been greatly weakened and might even be compelled by the Lebanese government to submit to its authority. Iran is being held accountable for all its proxies, itself a deterrent. For sure, much credit should be given to PM Netanyahu for orchestrating these successes in a masterful way and to our military that realized such triumphs.

Of course, waging war in those territories was not complicated by the presence of Israeli hostages cruelly held and brutally mistreated, as it was in Gaza. And undoubtedly Hamas has also been weakened grievously but as a suicidal death cult nurtured in a culture where Jews are hated and Israel must be destroyed, it will not be difficult for them to reconstitute. Such has already begun.

The diplomatic dangers we are facing are a consequence of fundamental errors that the American negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are making. I believe they mean well, and like President Trump, truly desire the peace and prosperity of Israel and the region. And the deal they engineered was nothing short of miraculous, a hidden miracle that reflects Shlomo’s words in Mishlei (21:1): “Like the water courses (in different directions), so is the king’s heart in G-d’s hand; He turns it whenever He desires.” It was an amazing feat to induce Hamas to free our hostages at one time, upfront, thus relinquishing the diabolical leverage they had over us. That was a stunning accomplishment for which the Americans and our government (Netanyahu, Ron Dermer, and others) deserve praise, notwithstanding the release of terrorist murderers that will plague us for years to come. And that the Arabs and Turkey pressured Hamas can surely be traced to our attack on Doha that suggested to Qatar that its territory is not sacrosanct as a haven for terrorists. But Witkoff and Kushner neglect two points.

First, they do not seem to consider the reality of Hamas, as Hamas itself advertises, proclaims, and uses to recruit new terrorists. It helps to read the Hamas charter: “Palestine is the land of the Arab Palestinian people, from it they originate, to it they adhere and belong… Palestine is a land whose status has been elevated by Islam… Palestine is a land that was seized by a racist, anti-human and colonial Zionist project that was founded on a false promise (the Balfour Declaration), on recognition of a usurping entity and on imposing a fait accompli by force… Palestine is an Arab Islamic land. It is a blessed sacred land that has a special place in the heart of every Arab and every Muslim… Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea… Resistance and jihad for the liberation of Palestine will remain a legitimate right, a duty and an honour for all the sons and daughters of our people and our Ummah.”

These are the words – never revoked or modified – of Hamas, a genocidal death cult that wants to destroy us. What part of this Jew-hating screed signals to the American negotiators that Hamas is a worthy interlocutor, deserving of a seat at the table of civilized nations? It is hard to detect any wiggle room in their call to genocide. In truth, the naiveté about Palestinian intentions has been a staple of American and Western diplomacy since the Palestinians were invented in the late 1960’s.

Some people found it very humane that Steve Witkoff, a bereaved father himself, offered condolences to the Hamas terrorist leader Khalil al-Hayya, whose son was killed in the Israeli attack on Doha, Qatar. I found it bizarre. Witkoff’s son died, sadly, of a drug overdose. Khalil al-Hayya’s son died because he was present in the headquarters of a genocidal death cult that yearns for the death of Jews (and Americans, but that is another matter). The difference between the two young men could not be starker. One was innocent and troubled; one was a terrorist or at least an associate of terrorists. Khalil al-Hayya himself called the massacre of Jews on October 7 “a great act,” something that should greatly curb any sympathy we have towards this monster.

The relentless and eternal hatred of Hamas – and of the Palestinian Authority – for Israel and Jews remains. We cannot wish it away. These are not “stupid Middle Eastern word games,” as Mr. Kushner called the long-lasting and frivolous focus of decades of Western diplomats. This is the sad reality. Nothing has happened that controverts that reality, and this reality has been ignored for time immemorial because – as once explained to me by a senior US negotiator – there could never be negotiations if we accepted that as a possibility. But wishing something away does not make it go away.

Thus, the absurdity of PM Netanyahu “apologizing” to Qatar for Israel’s attack on the Hamas headquarters, which of course I understand and accept on a political level (it’s just words, and it did help free the hostages from captivity). But was Qatar asked to apologize for hosting on its soil a genocidal death cult or subsidizing it with billions of dollars used to build its subterranean terror infrastructure? Of course not. Was Hamas asked to apologize for its ruthless assault on October 7 – its murdering, raping, pillaging, and kidnapping? Of course not; see their charter above, it is their “legitimate right.” Indeed, of all the billions the world plans to “invest” in the rebuilding of Gaza, should not the first allocation of that money be given to us to rebuild the Jewish communities around Gaza? After all, why are the aggressors more entitled to that money than the victims?

This is because of the second, almost inevitable, error made by the negotiators. They assume Qatar’s good faith and do not see them for what they are: fomenters, aiders, and abettors of terror. Witkoff and Kushner have this notion that Arabs say one thing in public and something else in private (that part is true) and assume that what they say in private is the truth and what they say in public is to quell the Arab street. They are seemingly oblivious to the possibility that what they (the Americans) are being told in private are lies for their consumption, while what the people are inculcated, and what their media proffer, are their true feelings. Children across the Arab world – and even in Palestinian schools in Jerusalem, certainly in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza – are still being taught that Jews are evil and Israel is illegitimate.

It is quite possible that these negotiators are being played and I hope that they consider that possibility. Some would argue that they might be blinded by lucre, their investments and plans for more, in these countries, but I think it is more likely that they see Qatar and Egypt (worse, Turkey) as worthy negotiators and countries instrumental in Gaza’s future because they have no choice but to believe that.

Just like Oslo was founded on willful delusions accepted by the world and thrust on the Israeli people, and just like the Gaza expulsion was sold to the Israel public by the promise of no more wars and deaths in Gaza, we are being sold this dream of imminent peace by assuming the good will of the funders, advocates, and brethren of the genocidal death cult. We fall for this latest delusion at our peril.

Part of the mirage is that peace is moments away, while it is likelier we will find ourselves again in a war of attrition, in which our soldiers and civilians occasionally are attacked and die, and we are urged to show restraint to maintain the “cease fire.” After the Six Day War, from 1968-1970, Israel lost roughly 900 soldiers in that War of Attrition, about as many as died in the Six Day War itself. We must be alert not to fall into this trap again and not pretend that only we have to “cease” while the enemy can still “fire.” And that fire can take the form of attacks on our soldiers, rockets sent our way, bombs placed in our restaurants, shootings at bus stops, and stabbings on our streets – all of which we will be cajoled into downplaying to protect the “cease fire.”

Additionally, we should be wary of another old tactic employed by our enemy and embraced by the West: attributing terror against Israel to “rogue groups” (like Trump just termed the Hamas attack that killed two soldiers from Modiin). This recalls similar excuses from decades past when to protect the PLO or Hezbollah, all terrorist acts were routinely attributed to a “previously unknown group,” which actually was the same old group, and occasionally to “lone wolves.” This verbal legerdemain fooled those who desperately wanted to be fooled. (I suppose we should then also attribute our counterattacks to “rogue forces” not under the control of our government, but I suspect we will not be believed).

We should also be concerned about safeguarding the “process,” diplomatic double talk for accepting our losses, paying a steep price, and doing nothing that will endanger the continuation of talks. There are certain staples in the world of illusion. Words matter more than deeds. Declarations of peace matter more than peace itself. President Trump repeatedly threatens to eradicate Hamas, just as Israel is assured that only Arab forces of which we approve will enter Gaza, but will all that be thrust aside to keep the process going?

There will be tremendous pressure on Israel to compromise on the disarming of Hamas, in whole or in part, and on the complete banishment of Hamas from Gaza; to overlook if all the bodies of our fallen and murdered held in Gaza are not returned; to pretend that violations of the cease fire do not mean there is no cease fire; and to allow nefarious forces such as Qatar and Turkey to gain a foothold in Gaza – Qatar, the longtime host of Hamas, and Turkey, from whose consulate in Jerusalem (which should be closed forthwith) it orchestrates anti-Israel activity through its organs TIKA, KUTAD, Younes Amra, and others. The Turks are especially dangerous, and especially in Jerusalem, where the Hamas leadership previously incarcerated has now been released and resumed its previous support of terror.

The genius of agreement was that, if executed, it fulfills all of Israel’s war aims. The weakness is that those objectives might be conceded under pressure to maintain the illusion that peace has broken out. Israel must insist that the disarming of Hamas and demilitarization of Gaza take place before any money enters Gaza, that voluntary emigration be placed on the table as a viable option that the international community will facilitate, and that a Palestinian state is a nonstarter. 

Witkoff and Kushner believe that all residents of the Middle East want peace with Israel and prosperity for all. I wish it were so. Absent concrete evidence – a good start would a complete halt to funding terror and relocation of all Gazans who do want a better life – we should not believe that.

Once again, the world will expect Israel to endanger itself to accommodate our enemy. The pressure will be intense. Let us ensure that does not happen.