By Victor Rosenthal | July 12, 2024
“…the great IDF, that was supposed to protect them, disappeared and left them alone against a satanic and bloodthirsty enemy that murdered, burned, raped, looted, and kidnapped for long hours almost without interference.” – Yoav Limor, Israel Hayom, 12 July 2024.
The real dimensions of Israel’s failure to provide for the most basic part of the social
contract, to protect its citizens against attack, are only now becoming clear. But nine
months after the disaster of 7 October 2023, one thing is undeniable:
Almost all of those in the government, the IDF, and all the security services who were
responsible for the policies that made the invasion and massacre possible, who did not
have adequate contingency plans, who ignored compelling intelligence information
beforehand, and whose response was inexcusably slow and inadequate, still have their
jobs.
Now the same people are negotiating a deal with the Hamas filth that will allow them to
stay in control of Gaza, rebuild their capabilities, and do it again.
All of them, from the Prime Minister and the Chief of Staff down, have to go. They have
proven themselves at best incompetent and at worst criminally negligent and must not be
allowed to continue to abandon our people to the monsters waiting on our borders.
The state’s top priority must be to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and remove it
from power. It must be possible for Israelis to return to their homes in the south of the
country without fear. And we must face the horrible reality that this takes precedence
over returning the remaining hostages.
I’m tired of hearing from our politicians that it is our “moral duty” to rescue (a few of!)
the hostages by surrendering to Hamas. It isn’t – our actual duty is to face the truth,
which is that the price of a deal is far too high and endangers the existence of the state.
The only option is to increase the military pressure.
I understand the real constraints, including the policies of the Biden administration, the
equally pressing need of the tens of thousands of Israelis that are displaced from their
homes in the north, the capabilities of Hezbollah, and the Iranian nuclear project. And I
understand the dangers posed by the Left, which wants to use the crisis to seize power
against the will of the great majority of Jewish Israelis. But we cannot allow failed
politicians and generals to continue to fail. This crisis is existential, and they have proven
that they are not up to the job.
Unfortunately, we don’t have the time it would take to have an election campaign and
coalition negotiations. And even if the process produced a government (which is not at all
certain), our broken system could easily result in one more corrupt and incompetent than
the present one.
Now what?
Why don’t the soldiers go on strike? Imagine if the soldiers demand that until they get rid of these failed military experts and bring in better ones, they are not fighting. This kind of paralysis would get results. The problem is that the country is too patriotic and subservient to its politicians. Especially the dati combat soldiers, who are the best and most dedicated, have long accepted their role to being treated like an abused wife by the secular higher ranking soldiers. They will let them die for the country but not get promoted to positions of power and they submissively accept this.
Unfortunately, this summary is correct. The only way left is to finish the war and then investigate what really happened. There may be some surprises.