Ongoing debate on Shalit prisoner swap diverts attention from military option
Arieh Eldad, YNET
There is a military option in Gaza. We can issue an ultimatum to Hamas that Israel would assassinate one of its leaders in Gaza or elsewhere every day if Gilad Shalit is not released at once. We can embark on a targeted operation based on existing intelligence information, or a broad operation if we lack such accurate intelligence information. We can kill every terrorist on the way, go from one house to the next, and while we’re at it blow up Qassam rocket workshops, arms caches, and tunnels. We can pulverize Hamas in Gaza as we pulverized the PLO in the First Lebanon War, and unlike what we did to Hizbullah in the Second Lebanon War (the reason we didn’t do it was not lack of power, but rather, deficient political and military leadership.)
Gilad Shalit has been in captivity for more than two years now. The media is replete with harsh descriptions regarding the conditions his captors are holding him in – a cellar or a narrow tunnel, without any daylight. I don’t know what the source of these descriptions is and whether they are based on intelligence information or imagination. However, there is no doubt that we need to get Shalit back home.
The debate seemingly focuses on how many terrorists should be released for him and how much blood we may accept on their hands. Is it moral to free hundreds of terrorists when everyone knows that anywhere between a third and a half of them will attempt to kill Jews again?
In our cemeteries one can find hundreds of buried Jews who were murdered by those released from Israeli prison in these types of tainted deals. Yet the debate regarding the number of prisoners and blood on their hands diverts it from what should be its main focus: The military option.
The Gaza Strip is a terror hub established through the folly of Israeli governments and by ignoring our national and security interests. This terror hub can be dismantled, however. We can fix what we ruined. Yet the correction has to start from this point. Capitulation to Arab terrorism in the form of Hamas’ Gaza regime paves the way for a complete Arab victory over Israel. What’s hanging in the balance is no longer Shalit’s release, but rather, the State of Israel’s liberation. Israel is a hostage at this time. Moreover, the Gaza Strip is within arm’s reach; within walking distance.
In the 1970s and 1980s Israel scored important victories against terror; these triumphs often exacted a heavy human toll, as was the case with the hijacked bus on the Coastal Road and the hostage-taking in Maalot. We even went as far as Uganda in order to rescue our hostages. Yet there is no doubt that had Olmert and his spineless government were leading Israel at the time, we wouldn’t even be considering a military move: Because of the distance and risk. Instead, we would have released thousands of terrorists. Yet during those days, capitulation to terrorism wasn’t an option.
Even when IDF soldier Nachshon Waxman was abducted, Israel’s leaders chose a risky military operation that ultimately ended in failure – the captive was killed, as did Nir Poraz, a Sayeret Matkal officer who died during the rescue operation. Yet the message conveyed to terror groups was that Israel does not capitulate to terror.
There is a military option
There is a military option in Gaza. We can issue an ultimatum to Hamas that Israel would assassinate one of its leaders in Gaza or elsewhere every day if Gilad Shalit is not released at once. We can embark on a targeted operation based on existing intelligence information, or a broad operation if we lack such accurate intelligence information. We can kill every terrorist on the way, go from one house to the next, and while we’re at it blow up Qassam rocket workshops, arms caches, and tunnels. We can pulverize Hamas in Gaza as we pulverized the PLO in the First Lebanon War, and unlike what we did to Hizbullah in the Second Lebanon War (the reason we didn’t do it was not lack of power, but rather, deficient political and military leadership.)
The alternative is not only capitulation to terror and the release of thousands of murderers. The alternative is reconciling ourselves to Hamas’ military buildup and fortification, until its rockets reach Tel Aviv and Dimona – then, we shall have to enter Gaza and pay a much greater price because of our current cowardice, hesitation, and flawed political considerations, which come in place of decisive national considerations.
Gilad Shalit must not become the reason for avoiding a war on terror. If this materializes and this is the way adopted by Israel, terror groups will realize that they found the way not only to release the murderers in our jails, but also “their entire Palestine.”
Tomorrow, more soldiers will be abducted for the sake of Mount Dov (which they refer to as the Shebaa Farms,) and two days from now, they will kidnap more troops and demand that we withdraw from Hebron. They will demand Temple Mount in exchange for several abducted civilians, and if, heaven forbid, they take over a kindergarten, they’ll demand Arab autonomy in the Galilee.
There is no logical reason for them to stop, unless we stop and say: No more.
Knesset Member Arieh Eldad, National Union-NRP
Yamit, thanks for Nevada’s article. Nice style and conten.
Gilad Schalit abduction is a price he pays for the Left support of the disengagement. No Israeli Leftist can preach now the sacrifice of more Jewish soldiers. Maybe the Peace Now battalions can do the job.
The only response is a prolonged artillery shelling of the Gaza.
Gabriel
The War Has Already Been Won
by Michelle Nevada
We are not ready to boast… yet.
As I sit here typing, the newest warrior in a religious war of sorts is kicking and punching and moving within me. As yet unborn, this tiny person represents the best hope for the future of Judaism, as do the new lives that are coming before and after. This child will be raised in a religious Zionist home, encouraged to be a part of Israel and the Jewish
The newest warrior in a religious war of sorts is kicking and punching and moving within me.
people, encouraged to pursue Torah, encouraged to marry Jewish and raise a family, encouraged to learn and grow and prosper.
This child, like its many siblings, will find love and comfort in our traditions and our people, and will be surrounded with Jewish books, Jewish friends, and Jewish life. Even more importantly, this child will be joined by thousands upon thousands of Jewish friends who will be raised with the same important guiding principles: the newest draftees in a war of demographics.
It is a war we are already winning, at first whispered among us – as if saying it too loudly might somehow break the magical power of which we were beginning to become aware – and then spoken of in tentative terms: perhaps, if things keep going this way, Israel will find itself a majority religious nation….
Now, as the headlines are beginning to build, as the newspapers and news shows are beginning to be more and more aware, and as the secular government ministers begin to speak with more and more panic about their inability to keep the state from its religious roots, the parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles of this demographic force are beginning to smile outright.
We aren’t ready to boast or cheer or go into the streets – yet. We are still waiting for the inevitable last throes of secularism, as it tries to push its weight around and eliminate our advantage, importing large numbers of non-Jews, attempting to give away strategic lands – doing anything to maintain an illusion of power.
We look with sadness upon the last of the backward regime, where secularists kowtow to terrorists and sacrifice our land and our people to the great idol of “peace.” We have seen how “peace” has stood, like a graven image, unable to move or speak, while our living G-d still gives us hope and promise of returning to our holy places and reclaiming our holy land. We know there is a lot of pain to come, but we also know that a slow,
The secular public has been having fewer and fewer children, valuing life-style over life.
unrelenting mass of religious children are headed their way, and there isn’t a whole lot they can do about it.
It has been going on for years. The secular public has been having fewer and fewer children, valuing life-style over life. The Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism in the US and Europe have been intermarrying, assimilating and losing their Zionist ideals. As Reform and Conservative synagogues see their numbers decreasing over the years, religious Jews see their congregations growing.
The religious public – still in love with the land of Israel; still yearning for our holy places; still dreaming of a land where Torah is important; and still understanding that without Israel, we are a lost people – have made Aliyah, moved to Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, Hevron and Tiberias. We have sent our children to religious schools despite the great sacrifices we’ve had to make. We’ve defended the land and established Hesder yeshivas where we integrate Zionism and Torah. Even when we can’t make Aliyah, we send our children to Israel to study and to serve. And, all the while, all over the world, religious Jews have been growing in numbers. We have a high birth rate because we value life. Our numbers are increased by a great number of newly religious Jews, and a steady stream of sincere converts, who also value life and have many children.
Now we see news stories of how IDF officers are 40 percent religious; how secular teaching colleges are facing shortages of students while religious teaching colleges have more students than they know what to do with. We see less tolerance for anti-Jewish secular policies like stores open on Shabbat, the sale of pork, the disruption of religious volunteers in Israeli schools and the ejection of Jews from Jewish lands.
Their complaints will lead not to abandoning “the territories,” but to annexing them.
We are not yet a majority in Israel, but we know the time is coming soon. We see the way that organizations like Peace Now try to remove us from our land, and we see that soon their complaints will lead not to abandoning “the territories,” but to annexing them. We see in Gaza how abandoning land does not lead to peace; it leads to war. We see how abandoning Torah does not lead to success; it leads to failure.
So, listen good, Shimon Peres, Yuli Tamir, Dorit Beinish and Ehud Olmert: your time in power is short. Soon, our children will be in your seats, they will be making the decisions, and they will bring glory back to Israel in the only way it can be found: through G-d. It’s something you can’t stop. It is already upon us. The demographic war is one you have already lost and will continue to lose – with each and every tiny kick and tiny punch of new Jewish lives.
20 Elul 5767 / 03 September 07
Dr. Eldad’s proposition is virtually the same as I have recommended over the years. Invade and capture Gaza, either kill or expel the whole of the Arab population, occupy the land and annex it as part of Israel.
Better to have done this and appoligize later than have the reverse.
just so everyone knows… i was against the US war on Serbia at the time it happened.
You may have heard the expression “Hoist on his own Bistro”. You have also heard of takkiya. I would advise this Jew to be rather careful.
But there is this separation in a lot of peoples minds between Serbs and Jews.
I have just covered this separation in an article I have written on the quite degenerate Phyllis Chesler of the equally degenerate Pajamas Media. It is found on
http://4international.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/jihad-against-the-jews-and-jihad-against-the-serbsstop-the-double-standards-chesler/
It is time that this bluff of American Jewish leaders who cannot break from US Imperialism was called.
They lend themselves to support of Jihad against the Serbs so how then can they oppose Jihad against their own people, the Jews. And the point is as we all on Israpundit know very well they cannot.
Ted may like to keep quiet about his very good friend Chesler but we intend to smoke him out on the issue of the double standards of Chesler. And other double standards
Of course these Kosovars have ethnically cleansed Kosovo with the help of NATO and the US Brit military machine. Cleansed of Jews and Serbs. So it is great for them from a propaganda viewpoint to have a Jew open a Bistro.
Naturally they are friendly to the US Imperialists.
And they see the Jews as being the friends and agents of US Imperialism. That is what people like Chesler achieve.
Only problem is that US Imperialism (not the people though) is leading the Jihad to destroy Israel!
Felix you’re gonna love this.
What’s that smoke I smell?
The point Samuel may be making is that the Serb people have faced Jihad, but there is a detail that I disagree with him on, and that is that the US Imperialists were no bystanders, they were provoking and leading this Jihad against the Serbs.
Remember that Hajj Amin el Husseini had organized this Jihad int he Balkans.
Now becoming any clearer?
Who is organizing Jihad in Israel. It is the US and British Governments again.
Aim in Serbia to destroy the Serbs as a nation.
Aim in Israel…to destroy the Jews as a nation.
Samuel can correct this if I have him wrong.
One result the arrest of Karadzic IS an issue for Israel.
Invasion of Gaza or leveling it or almost any concerted military move only makes sense it we either occupy Gaza permanently drive out all the Arabs or both. Anything less would mean very short term gains if any and they will in short order reconstitute themselves and come back at us with increased determination as well as enhanced abilities. its a political problem not so much a military one.
I’m kinda fuzzy on what precise point Samuel is trying to make..
That Israel should destroy the infrastructure in Gaza?
They happily live in raw sewage now!
What is this nonsense about needing or relying upon America/Euro precedence….. Israel has chosen to be impotent. Gaza is ONE HALF the size of the City that I live in…. whenever I think about that fact , my brain locks up over the logic that such a tiny little piece of land should be so problematic… My God… just fly some sonic booms over it and teh whole area will collapse.
The shape of the next wars:
Now that Hamas has taken complete control of Gaza, and Hizbollah has taken complete control of Lebanon (and the supposedly neutral “Lebanese Army”), the scope of Israel’s targets has increased.
The precedent has been set for Israel by Europe and America. The Germans (who are Hitler’s children after all) passionately hate the Slavic Serbs, who resisted the Nazis and the Austrians before them.
The Serbs gave the Germans the opening to extract revenge on the Serbs when they expelled the fifth column Muslim Kosavar Albanians from lands the Serbs considered to be their homeland.
Since the Germans (and the European Union)are “pacificists”, they convinced the gullible Americans to destroy the Serb Army for them.
The Americans were able to do this easily by hitting the Serbs’ Achille’s heel: they destroyed the Serbian infrastructure, systematically wiping out oil refineries, storage tanks, plants generating electricity, cell phone towers, bridges, etc., instantly sending Serbia back to the Dark Ages (and without killing many people). The Serbs just as quickly surrendered.
Now if Israel does this to Gaza or Lebanon, they will be branded international war criminals for their use of collective punishment against an innocent populace. The Americans and Europeans were able to get away with this against the Serbs because they use their power to make themselves the judges, and not the judged.
But that’s what it is coming down to for Israel, and it will be at least somewhat easier to justify this to the Jew-hating goyim, with Hamas and Hizbollah having taken complete control, and Israel just doing what America and Europe showed them.
Keelie I knew you would be there too! How is everything?
My kind of guy too!!! In addition to the two sane Jews in Israel, there are a few in the Diaspora…
My kind of guy!! This was exactly my suggestion here in Israpundit only a few weeks ago and a few months ago as well. Are there only two sane Jews in Israel? Must be a few more I am sure!!!
Surely he’s dead by now. Once Israel traded prisoners for corpses, what incentive to keep him alive?
Too bad moving into the Gaza now would put Israeli troops in the cross fire between Hamas and Fatah, who yes, are fighting one again in Gaza http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,396544,00.html . Now, I do not mind the Palestinians shooting each other up, but Israeli troops would get caught in the middle or may unite the two factions till Israeli troops left the Gaza Strip if they went in there.