Tag Archives: Politics

A Government with No Answers

Posted on July 31, 2025 | 3 comments

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

After more than twenty months of on-off warfare, Hamas is a pale image of its revolting self but still calls the shots, holds our hostages, manipulates Israel and world society, and is an evil player on the world stage. The war goals seem to have transmogrified to freeing the hostages at (almost) any price and providing humanitarian aid to the enemy population whose representatives invaded our communities, raped our women, butchered our elderly, set fire to our homes, and took hundreds of innocent people hostage. The conclusion is inescapable that the government of Israel is devoid of fresh ideas, trapped in the rut of failed approaches to the strategic challenges before us.

The two original errors still remain. First, declaring the joint war objectives of defeating Hamas and freeing the hostages, both worthy goals but incompatible without a miracle; second, precipitously distinguishing between Hamas and Gazans, as if the latter bear no responsibility for the former, as absurd as in 1944 distinguishing between the Nazis and the German people.

How bewildered is our government?

  • We have no answer to the outrageous quandary of Israelis held hostage. Hamas knows our weaknesses, aided and abetted by anti-government mobs and media who demand “bring them home now,” oblivious to the reality that even if every hostage would be returned alive today, Hamas would simply take new hostages tomorrow. And why not? The tactic works, mostly because we have allowed it to work.
  • We have become even more desperate than Hamas for a deal, any deal. We are negotiating with a genocidal, suicidal death cult sworn to our destruction, and perplexed why it is not responding favorably to our generous offers. It is because we have allowed them to think that they hold all the cards. Granted Hamas does not care about our people or even their people; but knowing that, why would keep strengthening them and their supporters?
  • We have no answer to the issue of humanitarian aid. For the first time in world history, an invaded nation is being forced by the “global community” to provide food, water, and fuel to an enemy population. This is obviously not required even by the charade known as international law and it is foolish to boot. People who complain that the war has dragged on too long must know that the war is being prolonged because of this aid. We are prolonging this war; yet we keep falling into the same trap.
  • We have no answer to the Hamas strategy of hiding among civilians. We have taken so many measures to avoid incidental harm to enemy civilians that our own soldiers’ lives have been lost. That is a moral obscenity, not surprisingly endorsed without legitimacy by our legal establishment – military, civilian and judicial – whom this government for too long has allowed to usurp power from the lawfully elected officials.
  • We have no answer to the Hamas strategy of prioritizing its own survival while enabling them to kill more Jews. Every seizure of territory in Gaza comes with a price in our soldiers’ blood. Every withdrawal from that captured territory allows Hamas to plant bombs and mines. Every week, several of our soldiers are killed in this war of attrition, blown up in booby-trapped buildings or by mines planted on roads. This is all to achieve dubious objectives. If the intention is to find the hostages, that tactic is not working. If the intention is to destroy terrorist infrastructure, then that endeavor is pointless if the IDF plans to retreat from those locations in the event of a hostage deal. Each hostage deal has freed some hostages – but also invariably resulted in the deaths of as many soldiers blown up by the explosives that the deal enabled Hamas to plant. That is not a sensible or winning strategy, and yet we are begging to do it again.
  • We have no answer to the relentless anti-Israel propaganda, but for that I cannot fault the government. Facts and truth are forlorn concepts in the Western world and the exponential increase in media outlets ensures that lies will always have greater currency than truth. The media’s interest is not in reporting news but in advancing a narrative, an agenda, and it is certainly harmful that the tendentious media readily find Israeli spokesmen – usually military has-beens who despise PM Netanyahu – who eagerly besmirch Israel at every opportunity. Where the government can be faulted is in not articulating a clear, Jewish approach to these issues, which has left us meandering in the muddle of Western moral vanities, adopting Western values (many of them fabricated just recently and some just for the purpose of this war) rather than present the Torah morality as would befit a Jewish people preserved by G-d to be a “light unto the nations.”

Our approach has become a macabre and bloody failure. We keep repeating the same mistakes hoping something different will happen. We keep negotiating hostage deals because that is what we do, unthinkingly, reflexively, knowing they jeopardize our soldiers today and our very existence tomorrow. We keep blowing things up, assuming that Hamas will rebuild but hoping it takes them just a little longer. We are not doing what it takes to win this war and deter the next. Why is Hamas recalcitrant in the most recent negotiations? Perhaps it is following Napoleon’s advice: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

It must be underscored that even with this government’s failures, spanning the spectrum of the Israeli political scene reveals that any other conceivable government would be far worse and its strategic posture even more distant from reality and our current needs. What must change?

  • We must rule out hostage deals in exchange for anything other than unconditional surrender. They are literally killing us – our soldiers, now, every week – and our citizens in the future. Hamas will never make any deal that leads to its disintegration and so we are foolish to expect it. Releasing their murderers cheapens our lives, emboldens them, and ensures that terror will continue and increase. We must stop validating their tactic of hostage-taking. Otherwise, we will wake up one day after all these hostages are freed to learn that G-d forbid a busload of children has been taken captive or a summer camp was overrun. At present, we are inviting that eventuality.
  • Additionally, we must begin executing convicted terrorists – those who murdered and those who attempt to murder. Now. And within weeks of their attack, not decades. That too will disincentivize hostage-taking. The security services have long argued against the death penalty on the grounds that it will lead the terrorists to mistreat our captives. In retrospect, does any argument sound more farcical today?
  • We must articulate for the world a Jewish morality of war. Sieges are moral, as they encourage surrender. We have no obligation to nourish the enemy in wartime. If the world really cares about innocent Gaza civilians, such as they might exist, they should be evacuating them from this war zone to their own countries. Again, by providing nourishment and fuel to our enemies in wartime (and not even insisting on third-party verification that our hostages are being fed!), we are prolonging the war, killing our soldiers, and further endangering our hostages.
  • We need our own DOGE in Israel – a Department of Gaza Evacuation. To the extent that it does not already exist is an abject failure on the part of this government. A government that continues to surrender territory – that forces its soldiers to fight and die again and again for the same turf – is too cavalier with its soldiers’ lives. Yes, we should announce that Gaza will be evacuated, that Israel is claiming this territory (our ancient biblical patrimony, in any event), and will soon resettle it. This cannot hurt our public relations, which is already largely moribund and irrelevant to anyone outside our echo chamber. We should have already – literally – moved our border fences two kilometers inside Gaza and announced to the world that the invader has lost this land permanently. Let the nations of the world – all of them founded on conquest – object. And let those nations so concerned with the fate of Gaza civilians – I mean you, France, Turkey, and Spain – take them.
  • We must not allow our fate to be decided by unelected judges and functionaries, like the Government’s Legal Advisor, herself morally compromised. She does not like the government’s new head of the GSS? She now wants the appointment delayed for another sixty days? Who is she? And why does any self-respecting government honor her wishes? The will of the people is reflected in their elected representatives, not a self-appointed legal oligarchy that deigns to rule its “inferiors.” Yes, General David Zini should be sworn in tomorrow and assume the position, and if the Legal Advisor objects, inform her that her objections are duly noted, but when the Government wants her advice, it will ask for it. Only a hapless government continues to abide her and the rogue court that underwrites her.
  • We must make our goal of “absolute victory” not a political slogan or a rhetorical device but a reality. It is no secret that generals weaned on Oslo, the Gaza Expulsion, and the need to make peace with our enemies whatever the cost – and not entirely convinced of the  justice of our cause or possession of our land – will not be able to devise a plan for victory but only for negotiations, cease fires, and kicking the can down the road. With such generals, we will not prevail.
  • We must cease listening to our enemies – and even some of our friends – as to how best to win the war. As the Prussian military thinker Karl von Clausewitz put it, “Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat an enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed: war is such a dangerous business that the mistakes which come from kindness are the very worst.” 

We are bereft of answers because we are making the mistake of fighting a war with too much kindness – the antithesis of the Torah’s ethic of war. It is not a sign of moral sensitivity that we worry ourselves with the fate of the enemy civilians but a clear indication of moral confusion. Our ongoing national surrender to hostage-taking must stop. If we continue along the current path, we will neither win the war nor free the hostages. And that will be more devastating than the matter of who the prime minister is and for how long.

To be sure, there is a clear but not a smooth path to victory. Much of the world simply does not want us to win and they couch their hatred in the moral bromides they direct our way. In the short term, we will pay a diplomatic and likely an economic price for victory. Worse, all of our hostages may not be returned alive. We should prepare for it – or at least willfully choose the path of false promises, magical illusions, and wishful thinking that were hallmarks of the Oslo Accords and the Gaza Expulsion, fatal errors from which many in our midst still do not recoil in shame. But victory is its own reward, much of the world will slowly awaken to the improved strategic posture of this defeat of radical Islam, and any discomfort should be short-lived. And always remember that Donald Trump loves winners, no matter how the victory is achieved, and has contempt for non-winners, the stalemate crowd.

What Thomas Jefferson said about slavery in 1820 is true about Hamas today: “We havethe wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go.” If Hamas remains in Gaza, it will rebuild its terror infrastructure on the global dime, and quickly, and even more deadly – having bloodied Israel and survived. But even a Hamas defeated in Gaza will not disappear. It will continue its genocidal ambitions elsewhere and probably make foreign Jews its primary target in the short term. That is the price we pay for Jew hatred and we must always be vigilant.

What a victory will accomplish is deterrence. Our enemies will recalibrate the high cost of murdering Jews, and most will desist. Others will realize that they have nothing to gain as our foe and much to gain as our friend, and the region will be transformed. A victory will enable us to rebuild our society from within and heal the fractures that now beset our people, redefine our national purpose, and strengthen our national will. This government should not squander this opportunity.

Our government desires victory but has no plan for victory. It is now spinning its wheels, endangering our soldiers, and focused on feeding our enemies. Those mistakes can be rectified with an announcement and implementation of a dramatic change in policy – a policy centered on Israeli interests, the wellbeing of our citizens and soldiers, and faith in our destiny.

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Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize

Posted on July 24, 2025 | 1 comment

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

When Prime Minister Netanyahu presented President Trump with the letter Netanyahu sent to the Nobel Peace Prize committee recommending Trump for the 2025 award, the President was genuinely surprised and touched. It was a gracious act on Netanyahu’s part, reflecting Israel’s appreciation for the role the United States played in degrading Iran’s nuclear program as well as playing to Trump’s ego. It was simultaneously sincere and sycophantic. It also might be dangerous for Israel.

To be sure, it is extremely unlikely that Trump will be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize even if he convinced the world’s rogue nations to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. The Nobel Prize Committee skews heavily to the left, where Trump is anathematized and even his accomplishments are dismissed. More importantly, the Nobel Peace Prize, despite its luster, has often been a poor indicator of true peace and occasionally downright farcical.

Look no further than the 1994 Peace Prize awarded to Yasser Arafat, Yitzchak Rabin, and Shimon Peres for the Oslo Accords. Arafat remained an unrepentant terrorist still plotting Israel’s destruction until his final days. The Oslo Accords themselves – despite their best but foolhardy intentions – led inexorably to Israel’s strategic decline in the 1990’s and 2000’s, the fracture of its society into warring camps, an unprecedented wave of terror that claimed thousands of Israeli dead and wounded and Israel’s surrender of the Gaza Strip, and ultimately to the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023. That Peace Prize mocks itself and its recipients.

In 1973, Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam’s Prime Minister Le Duc Tho were honored with that year’s Peace Prize for negotiating the Vietnamese cease fire that enabled US troops to withdraw from that conflict. Le Duc Tho had the decency to decline the award, perhaps knowing that within eighteen months North Vietnam would breach the cease fire, assault and conquer South Vietnam, and end the war on its own terms.

At best, the Nobel Peace Prize is aspirational. It suggests fantasies and good intentions but little else. Witness the 1997 award to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. American troops in Iraq, and Israeli forces in Gaza, certainly wish the campaign had been more successful; alas, it failed to convince the evildoers who still use mines as weapons of war.

Similarly, the 2005 award to the International Atomic Energy and its head, Mohammed ElBaradei, “for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes” failed to anticipate how little they did to thwart Iran’s nuclear weapons programs, certainly compared to the dramatic strikes of Israel and the United States. And perhaps the most risible award, in retrospect, was the 1929 Peace Prize bestowed upon Frank Kellogg who as US Secretary of State negotiated the “Kellogg-Briand Pact” that outlawed all wars between nations. Among the signatories were Germany and Japan. Neither the pact nor the prize averted one of the deadliest and bloodiest centuries in world history.

Undoubtedly, Trump craves the award, but Israel must be wary of succumbing to his entreaties or pressure in order to give him that chance. Trump is attempting to negotiate a series of cease fires across the world, all of which solve nothing. The cease fire with the Houthis of Yemen has not stopped them from firing missiles at Israel or pirating Western commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The proposed cease fire in Ukraine rewards Russian aggression, kicks the can down the road for another few years – and even so is still rejected by Russia. Trump declared a “cease fire” between Iran and Israel, and yet Iran is already rebuilding its air defenses and most probably its nuclear capabilities.

An imposed cease fire in Gaza – something that Trump has said for the better part of three months is imminent – will make it more difficult for Israel to achieve its goals of defeating Hamas, freeing the hostages, and preventing the reconstruction of an irredentist Gaza. As currently contemplated, the latest plan literally rewards terror, validates kidnapping civilians as a successful and unstoppable tactic, forces Israel to withdraw from territory already captured multiple times at a high cost in the blood of our soldiers, will exact an higher price if Israel has to fight over the same territory yet again, and prolongs the war through the provision of supplies to the enemy and its population in wartime. It will almost guarantee that Hamas remains in power, declares victory, rebuilds its power base and terror infrastructure, and plots its next massacre of Jews.

Additionally, expanding the Abraham Accords to countries with an avowed hostility to Israel – and to the United States – serves neither country’s interests. It will invariably lead to the US providing aid to its own adversaries and constraining Israel’s options in order to maintain the illusion of harmony. Accords between nations must be based on mutual respect and shared interests, if not shared values. To think this includes Syria requires a willful suspension of disbelief and unlimited naïveté.

The history of the Nobel Peace Prize and its recipients is a stark reminder that peace does not come through ceremonies, treaties, or awards but only through a transformation of hearts. The alternative – an absence of war – is meaningful in its own rights but is subject to the whims of new leaders.

For sure, by the standards of Nobel Peace Prize, Donald Trump deserves it for at least trying to end conflicts, even though no conflict has been ended. But Israel should not allow Trump’s interest in the award to shape its statecraft, limit its freedom of action, or make ill-considered concessions that resuscitate our most vile enemies. Otherwise, the dangers posed by the enmity of our foes will harm us long after the Nobel pomp and ceremony has receded into history. Israel’s security should not be sacrificed on the altar of good intentions or the vanity project which is the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Ceaseless Fire

Posted on June 24, 2025 | Comments Off on Ceaseless Fire

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

As Winston Churchill allegedly said, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.” We are experiencing both parts of that aphorism in real time.

It is inconceivable that any Democratic president would have attacked Iran’s nuclear reactors. The allure of the diplomatic solution is that the dream never dies; it is always just one negotiation away. But credit to President Trump who thinks out of the box, has little use for “experts,” resents being endlessly strung along, and took the courageous decision to send American forces to obliterate the cornerstone of Iran’s diabolical plan to destroy the State of Israel – its nuclear weapons facilities.

Moreover, Trump had to unexpectedly return to office and also overcome the harping of his critics on the right and left, the dumbest and most tendentious of whom assert that the US attack was illegal without prior congressional authorization and an impeachable offense. That is preposterous; pursuant to American law, the President has to notify Congress within 48 hours of the deployment of American forces overseas, and that was done within six hours. Why would his critics prattle something so patently false? To get their names in the headlines, which works all the time.

Granted, it was always assumed that the United States would not attack first, and not on its own. The fact that Israel softened up – really, demolished – Iran’s air defenses rendered the attack relatively low risk, high reward. But there is always some risk involved, and Trump delayed, wanting to ensure that the US attack was politically, morally, and strategically defensible, as well as to add to the element of surprise through deflection and deception.

Obviously, high praise is due PM Netanyahu, who after decades of hesitation – he has literally been saying since the 1990’s that Iran is 6-12 months away from a nuclear bomb – finally acted. Our sages taught that “there are those who acquire their world in one moment.” The constellation of events that made this possible is breathtaking, biblical in nature. The capabilities of Iran’s proxies had to be greatly degraded or eliminated so that an attack on Iran would not result in immediate peril right on our borders. Netanyahu had to have a supportive cabinet of like-minded individuals, and not the negativity of his former officials who are now the has-beens who vilify him daily in the media. And he had to have a supportive United States to provide diplomatic cover, weaponry, and the bunker-busting bombs that could destroy underground facilities.

It was the right thing to do for both countries, and for both men, and for the world, and that they did it, acting in concert, can change history. Will it last?

There we come to the American predilection, identified by Churchill, to “try everything else” before doing the right thing. Trump’s impetuous announcement of a cease fire – no written text, no formal agreement, no discernible conditions – and callously allowing each party (to his thinking) to get in their last blows has already exacted a terribly steep price in the deaths of Israeli civilians. As I write, the deadline has passed but the missiles keep coming. What was he thinking?

The substance of Trump’s world view is a fundamental misconception of this part of the world and the nefarious actors involved. To call on Iran to “stop the hatred” miscomprehends the source of that hatred: it is religiously based, woven into the fabric of the brand of Islam embraced by the Ayatollah and Revolutionary Iran, and not readily relinquished. Trump may casually invoke “God’s blessings” on all nations and the world but – as a materialist who sees the purpose of life as making as much money as you can and enjoying it – he is essentially clueless as to the power of the religious idea, especially in distorted form. He simply cannot understand people who would rather launch deadly missiles at innocent civilians than play a round of golf or who would rather die – killing themselves and murdering Jews – than enjoy a day of frolic at a country club.

It is that fundamental misconception – really, a world view to which he cannot relate – that enables Trump to release such blather as “Israel & Iran came to me, almost simultaneously, and said, “PEACE!” I knew the time was NOW. The World, and the Middle East, are the real WINNERS! Both Nations will see tremendous LOVE, PEACE, AND PROSPERITY in their futures.” None of this actually happened. A cease fire that does not deal with the underlying causes of the conflict is bound to fail, and negotiations with Iran that do not begin with one question to which the only acceptable and decent answer is “yes” – do you repudiate your fantasy of destroying Israel? – is a waste of time and will only enable Iran to rebuild and plan the next war..

Additionally, it is far premature to claim that Iran’s nuclear facilities have been “totally and completely obliterated.” No one in a position to know actually says that with any assurance. To be honest, no one really knows what was obliterated; no one knows how much enriched uranium was destroyed and how much carted off to other secret locations; no one knows what centrifuges survived and where they might be; no one even knows if there are back-up facilities at which uranium can still be enriched and weaponized. Trump’s claims are wishful thinking uttered with complete bravado. And his reference to the “Twelve Day War” (yes, I know, we are used to Six) ignores the obvious fact that Iran has been at war with Israel for decades and that war has sadly not ended.

Only regime change will end the threat. The problem is that regime change is not in our hands nor in the hands of the United States. For decades we have heard about the dissidents, the Iranian opposition, the revulsion that “most” Iranians have towards the cruel regime of the mullahs and how given the chance they would rebel against and overthrow those who seized their country. Well, they have been given the chance.

An additional problem is that Iran is a factionalized society, a conglomerate of many different ethnic groups and religions who do not all share the same vision for their society. Any successor government would ideally permanently renounce Iran’s nuclear program but that is not guaranteed. There is no clear replacement, so much has Iran suppressed its people and persecuted any dissidents. Nor is it really known what percentage of the population truly despises the regime or is willing to gamble their lives attempting to depose it. Accordingly, the worst time, then, to walk away from Iran and suddenly declare a cease fire is when the boot is on the Ayatollah’s throat, his regime is reeling, and his capacity to intimidate and govern at its lowest ebb. It makes reconstituting his tyranny more likely.

No Israeli should be surprised if a cease fire goes into effect, and we finally expect a good night’s sleep, only to have that interrupted by renewed rocket fire from the Houthis. And while Hezbollah has been neutralized, at least for the moment, the zombie-like Hamas – dead but not buried, dysfunctional but still holding our hostages and attacking our soldiers – is also extant, kept alive by our “humanitarian” aid. (Q. By the standards to which we are held, shouldn’t Iran be required to provide humanitarian aid and money to rebuild to the Israeli victims? Shouldn’t Iran be called to account by the UN, ICC, ICJ, and the rest of the alphabet for its gross violation of human rights for targeting Israeli civilians? A. Don’t hold your breath. Those sham rules only apply to Israel.) A cease fire gives us time to refresh and regroup – but it gives the enemy the same time.

It is not normal that Israel – a tiny country with a tiny but magnificent population – should have been the world’s only nuclear non-proliferators (Iraq, Syria, Iran) until this past Sunday. Perhaps being a light onto the nations includes relentless reminding them of good and evil, moral and immoral, right and wrong, and how their choices will determine their futures much more than they think. We do have what to teach the world, and many still resent us precisely for that reason.

We are left now with many unknowns, and perhaps that is how it should be. We are not truly the masters of our fate. We are the beneficiaries in miraculous ways of the Lord’s kindness that we are living through now. We have suffered terrible losses, injuries, and devastation, but nothing like what should be anticipated from the extent of the rockets and missile fire we have endured. It is as if a small number get through in order to make us realize that our human systems are not perfect and we are ultimately shielded by Divine Providence.

The events of the last two weeks have demonstrated again the resilience and strength of the people of Israel – and of the protective hand of G-d “who is Good and does good.” May that protective shield continue until we merit complete redemption.

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Virtue-Signaling Hypocrites

Posted on June 16, 2025 | 1 comment

      

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

Thursday, June 12 – The decision by five nations – United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand – to sanction Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is both outrageous and shameful. It would seem that they were sacrificial lambs, offered up by these nations to placate the Jew-haters in their midst because these countries are not yet ready to recognize a Palestinian state. Something had to be done to keep their ravenous, Jew-hating wolves at bay, and the sanctions regime was chosen. It should be met by a muscular Israeli response, notwithstanding the lack of practical effect but especially considering the baseless accusations against government ministers.

In short, the ministers were accused of “inciting violence” against Arabs but zero evidence was marshalled in order to sustain that indictment. Instead, the inciteful statements included their unequivocal opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state and their energetic support for Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. Notwithstanding that these are two policies now widely favored by the Israeli public (85% of whom are opposed to a Palestinian state), how does that translate into “inciting violence” against Arabs?

In the delusional world of the European and Oceanic diplomats, building Jewish homes in Judea (of all places) and opposing the formal creation of a terror state, somehow incites violence, presumably of Arabs against Israelis. This conclusion is in keeping with the soft bigotry of low expectations with which the Western world treats the Palestinians, who apparently cannot help but shoot and kill a Jewish woman in childbirth because they do not like where she lives. If these countries actually believe that Smotrich or Ben-Gvir incited Jews to attack Arabs, they should adduce that evidence forthwith.

Other statements that agitated these diplomats were Smotrich’s assertion that the Palestinians are not a nation, and that both have declaimed that Gazans should be relocated to another country. That latter suggestion was termed “monstrous” by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, presumably implicating President Trump as well, as that “monstrous” idea was his. But it is hard to contend that Palestinians are a nation, as they lack any history before the 20th century and exist only as a counterforce against Israel.

This, indeed, was prophesied in the Bible. The Torah teaches that at the end of days, in our last futile rebellion against G-d, “they will provoke Me with a non-god…and I will provoke them with a non-people” (Devarim 32:21). Golda Meir famously said that “there is no Palestinian people.” To be sure, they are a contrived people, a 20TH century fabrication, which had no national life or even ambition until Jewish nationalism arose. That is why when Egypt and Jordan occupied, respectively, Gaza, Judea, and Samaria from 1948-1967, they did not create a “Palestine” country nor did any such “Palestinians” demand one. The issue only arose when Jews conquered that territory, ancient and integral to the Jewish homeland.

One can quibble as to whether they are a nation today; as recently as 1967, the UN Resolution 242 that sought a “just and lasting peace” made no mention of Palestinians or a Palestinian state. But is rejection of an Arab state carved from the land of Israel tantamount to “inciting violence”? Only in the fevered imaginations of these diplomats.

What is especially rich is their denunciations of Israel as a colonialist power. The French, who haven’t yet sanctioned Israelis but who are otherwise making mischief in the Middle East, still retain vestiges of the French Empire, with twelve territories stretching from Martinique and St. Martin in the Caribbean Sea to French Polynesia and New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean. They came into possession of these territories the old-fashioned way – military conquest – apparently still indifferent to the very modern value of the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war.”

The British are even more egregious, retaining control over Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos, and a dozen other territories where they should not be. They even went to war in 1982 when the Falkland Islands were conquered by Argentina, which still claims sovereignty over these lands that are right off their coast. Put another way, the UK dispatched a naval flotilla six thousand miles from their shores in order to retrieve a small piece of land they claim as theirs since the 18th century despite Argentina’s parallel claim. Yet, the British deign to preach to Israel about Jews settling in Judea or about the conduct of our war in Gaza which adjoins Israel and is relentlessly hostile and homicidal. Such assertions are obviously and unimaginably hypocritical. The British killed 649 Argentinians during that two-month conflict (or 64,900 as counted by the Gaza Ministry of Health).

Indeed, it would be quite appropriate now for Israel to recognize the Falkland Islands as sovereign Argentinian territory (if Argentina approves). This would be a worthy gesture to Argentinian President Javier Milei, whose unabashed support for Israel is a bright star in an otherwise dark world, and especially in light of Argentina’s decision to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Let the British withdraw from land which they have no rational reason to possess and let them acknowledge Israel’s sovereign right to the land of Israel.

How should Israel respond? The government’s denunciation of the sanctioning of our ministers as “outrageous” is a good beginning but it should not end with words. The foreign ministers of these countries should be barred from visiting Israel and their ambassadors should be called to the Foreign Ministry for a stern lecture.

Additionally, Smotrich’s decision to disconnect the PA from the Israeli banking further exposes the PA as a house of cards ready to collapse, incapable of sustaining itself. This is a tough but crucial measure to create a new Middle East, including an Israel in which only people who want to live here and accept Israel’s sovereignty are allowed to live here. We will never have even a semblance of security until that happens.

It is also high time for the British Consulate in Jerusalem, the UK’s representation to the Palestinian Authority, to be summarily closed as an offense to Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. These consulates – there are about a dozen others – should be denied a presence in Jerusalem, and if those countries wish to have representation to the PA, it should open offices in Ramallah, the PA’s seat of government. Israel has for too long acquiesced in this affront to our sovereignty. Furthermore, Israel’s Finance Ministry and National Security Ministry should cut off all contact and relations with their counterparts in those five countries.

These would be the responses of a proud nation. For that matter, these would be the responses of even an unproud nation whose ministers are penalized for defending their nations’ interests. We need not and should not accept these indignities. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir simply reflect the will of their constituents. If opposition to a Palestinian state and Jewish settlement in the heartland of Israel is worthy of sanctions then half of Israel could effectively be sanctioned. It means that any right-wing government is worthy of sanctions. It is thus best to challenge this decision now; even as a hollow symbol it is still repugnant.

If, indeed, these sanctions are essentially meaningless, except as an insult, why did these countries rush to implement them? Well, insulting us is part of the goal, but more importantly, these countries – all governed now by leftists and all being besieged by an influx of Muslims immigrants, legal or not – are pseudo friends of Israel at best and quiet enemies at worst. Each of these countries have been victims of Muslim terror and each struggle to protect its Jewish population from the predations of these new immigrants. It is not the country as much as it is the governments of those countries. Their ideology has no place for a religious-national entity; as such Israel, the national home of the Jewish people, is in their view doubly flawed.

The perfidious quintet sanctioned Smotrich and Ben-Gvir for no valid reason – but they mean all of us. These virtue signalers are not in the least sincere. We should not allow their stunning hypocrisy to resonate with us or doubt the justice of our cause. At the end of days, the nations will thrash about and challenge the people of Israel one last time. Let this be the last gasp of secularism and its discontents before the era of redemption unfolds before us and elevates all of mankind to a more moral and peaceful world.

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