Today while watching the television news I heard the interview of a mother of a wounded soldier who is also the mother of a soldier fighting. She was asked if she had a message for her son the soldier on the battlefield:
"סיים את המשימה Complete the Mission! Sayyem et HaMissimah!"Yes, that's what she said to him live on Israeli television.
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| Among the wounded are several lone soldiers, who came to Israel for the sole purpose of joining the IDF
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Photo credit: Dudu Grunshpan |
And yes, that's the way most Israelis feel. We are sick and tired of listening to unrealistic extreme Leftists who pontificate the supposed, alleged peacefulness and logic of the Gazans, claiming "they certainly want peace, just like we do." Well, the proof's in the pudding; they don't. It's very dangerous to dream that our enemy is "just like us."
Remember that the night, less than two months ago, when the three teenagers were kidnapped and murdered, there were celebrations in Arab towns all over. And the films of the celebrating Gazans, including children, yes all civilians at the capture of IDF soldier (most probably his dead body) are horrifying.
We must keep pounding away until they break, because otherwise they will win. There's no negotiating and no ceasefire if we want to survive!
4 comments:
While I believe that we need to minimize civilian cassualties, because hopefully we WILL someday try to make peace (and also for our own ruchnius) ... in the meantime we have done all that is within reason for us to do. Now the ball is in the court of the Palestinians. Meanwhile we MUST do what we need to, go protect ourselves. It appears that the Palestinians will need much more force to come to the realization that we are not going to just fold up and go away. At least let us hope that the soldiers who are dying are not making that sacrifice for the sake of a mere two year lul.
I think there are several things to say.
First, the people in charge should not overrate the comptence of the military. That's actually the number one thing. The Israeli military is good, but it does make blunders and mistakes, both in protecting its own soldiers and trying to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. A little bit more humility and they'd be realized sooner.
The mistakes: They didn't expect the Hamas people to be such well trained fighters. They didn't know about these tunnels at all till after the war started.
The Americans told the Iraquis who went into Tikrit recently that fighting in the center of cities was very bad, because of the possibilities for ambush due to the buildings and they should encircle it first, and they didn't listen and a lot of Iraqi solddeirs got killed.
Not understanding that principle was a mistake.
Perhaps also the importance of getting rid of these tunnels was overrated. (they only extend about 300 meters into Israel, which means in many places you can just build another wall)
And if Hamas is not destroyed, they can be rebuilt, just like rockets may be re-acquired, although now that's much more difficult for Hamas. And if Hamas is destroyed, what do you need to go into the tunnels for?
They expected the people in Sheijaya to all leave - I stress expected, it's one thing to go ahead knowing they didn't, it's another thing to think that they did.
And then when they didn't they thought they were either loyal to Hamas or forced to by Hamas.
But it seems that what happened, according to the New York Times, was that Hamas told them it was all psychological warfare and there would not be an attack. And also maybe that Israel only meant the eastern part of Sheijaya, which was a prevalent opinion there. Hamas of course never told them about their extensive tunneling under their neighborhood.
They do such things, by the way, where their supporters do not live. They want civilian casualties but not quite Hamas people.
Also there was the idea that there was no safe place to go - see, this hospital or whatever was attacked, and how will tehy eat.
Besides which people are reluctant to abandon their homes.
So nobody should have expected them all to flee.
Does nobody in the Israel military study war, or read the new york times?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/17/world/middleeast/for-iraq-debacle-in-tikrit-as-forces-walk-into-trap-set-by-militants.html?_r=0 For weeks, the Americans had implored Iraqi leaders not to fight for the centers of cities, but to establish control of roads and highways, and thus set their own conditions for battle.
RM, it's all in the Hishtadlut, our efforts. If we do it right, then G-d will chip in and fix it like He did in 1967.
Sammy, the tunnels are very dangerous as they cross under borders and enter residential areas.
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