Make no mistake about it Israel is in the midst of a war for its very survival. Hamas has invested in acquiring more advanced rockets to fire indiscriminately as Israeli civilians and to create a network of tunnels through which they seek to sneak into Israel to kill and capture thousands of innocent Jews.
Throughout this latest round of the conflict well meaning people have called for Israel to end its fight against Hamas. Most in the West don’t realize that Hamas is a fanatical religious organization whose raison d’etre is to have armed conflict with Israel leading to the destruction of the State of Israel. In fact the very idea of a cease-fire with Hamas is nonsensical because Hamas has only one goal, to destroy Israel. They see this as a religious obligation from God.
Some thought that once Hamas controlled its own territory it would be forced to start acting responsibly and would accept Israel. This has now definitively been proven wrong. Hamas has run Gaza for seven years now. Yet, instead of improving the lives of their population, they have spent huge sums on rockets and underground tunnels meant to kills Jews.
With a fanatical religious organization that believes God forbids compromise and that they are divinely mandated to destroy Israel, there is but one choice. Israel needs to completely destroy their capability to act out their evil mission. For Israel, it is truly do or die.
Thirty five hundred years ago as our ancestors, the ancient Israelites, prepared to enter into the Land of Israel, Moses warns: ‘If you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those of whom you leave will become pins in your eyes and thorns in your sides and they will harass you on the land upon which you dwell, ‘ (Numbers, 33:55).
The 17th century Moroccan commentator Rabbi Haim Moshe Ibn Attar explains that Moses was telling the Israelites that a strategy that splits the Land of Israel into two states one for the Canaanites and one for the Israelites will backfire and result in the unleashing of Canaanite terror on Jewish territory. Despite these warnings Jews have a tendency to be merciful and throughout history have never had the stomach to truly do what it takes to secure their own country.
Modern day Israel is no different. Israeli leaders believed that if it gave Gaza to the Palestinians and let them rule their own territory we would be able to live comfortably on our land while they become busy making their land flourish. Unfortunately this did not come to pass. Instead of working on turning Gaza into a beautiful, prosperous seaside enclave they spent their time and treasure finding new and better ways to terrorize Jews. This is as tragic as it was predictable.
Again, we stand at yet another crossroads. Israelis are fighting a battle of survival. Yet, the world is beginning to condemn Israel and Secretary of State Kerry, who is no friend of the Jews, is working feverishly to secure a ceasefire. Yet whilst the death of civilians on the Palestinians side is tragic and heart breaking for all of us, Israel really only has one viable choice and that is to demilitarize the Gaza strip and completely remove HamasÍ capability to terrorize Jews. No other entity will do that for Israel. Anything less simply kicks the can down the road and will result in more terror on Jewish communities and will have a very high price in terms of Jewish blood. If Netanyahu agrees to a ceasefire before completing this job that Jewish blood will ultimately be on his hands.