1. Not a normal being. On Tuesday, Nahum Barnea published an article stating that "the round of ground fighting in Khan Yunis cannot last beyond ten days to two weeks." He added that the combination of two million displaced persons and U.S. pressure "dictates the limits of action." Barnea expresses the position of the Americans and apparently certain perceptions in the General Staff. These are dangerous things, especially in times of war. Hamas understands that it needs to hold out a little longer, and it's over. In the codes of the Middle East, this means defeat, God forbid.
The Israeli public understood after October 7 that we are not dealing with a normal entity seeking territory or political independence, but with savages whose bloodlust competes with the lust for rape of our daughters, and for whom the population of Gaza is not worthy of life but only to serve as life protectors, and certainly the population of Israel is mortal. Such an entity, whose founding document satisfies its believers to devote their lives to the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews – the modern-day Hitlerist Mein Kampf – must not compromise. It will be a cry for generations, similar to the Allied war petition against Nazi Germany in the middle of the invasion of Europe.
Southern Command commander: "The fighting in Khan Yunis is the main effort" // Photo: IDF Spokesperson
In the Middle East, victory must be clear and resonant in enemy codes and not subject to interpretation in television studios, even if we have to continue fighting for many months. It is not enough to eliminate ten thousand Hamas terrorists and leave another twenty thousand to return to the Gaza Strip. Eliminating evil altogether – not partial eradication – is our moral obligation towards the victims of the massacre, towards the communities in the south, and towards the citizens of Israel and IDF soldiers who risk their lives. The desired victory in the language of the region is found in our sources, in the combat doctrine of the Israeli army under the command of King David: "I will pursue my enemies and achieve them, and I will not return until they are gone, their courage and they could not rise up and fall under my feet... Kneel up beneath me. And Evie beheaded me... And I will play them like dust on the wind." Only then will there be a chance for quiet, when they understand the price for those who do this to us. In the meantime, the fighting must continue with full force.
2. The experiment was performed and failed. In engineering engineering, the debate recurs about the necessity of the Jewish communities in Samaria and Judea for state security. It is hard to believe, but even after October 7, there are still those who believe that it is possible to impose the Palestinian Authority on Gaza and establish a Palestinian state on the back of the mountain in Samaria and Judea.
Let's repeat the first ones: two experiments are ahead of us. In the Gaza Strip, in the summer of 2005, we retreated to the border, destroyed our communities, took our dead and relied on technology to warn us. Since then, we have suffered tens of thousands of missiles and rockets, embarked on bloody rounds of fighting (with creative names: Cast Lead, Protective Edge, Guardian of the Walls, etc.) and paid the price of our soldiers and civilians. And we haven't even talked about the enormous economic damage that the disengagement has caused us since then. In the October 7 massacre, it seemed that our innocence had been closed, and so we embarked on a long war in the Gaza Strip.
On the other hand, in Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, we regained control of Samaria and Judea, settled in the envelope of Palestinian cities and expanded the defense of Jewish communities. We do not interfere in the lives of the residents of the PA, as long as they do not plot to kill us. The ability to control, intelligence and defense there is infinitely better than all the technological means we have deployed in the Gaza Strip. This is because we are on the ground itself.
And it's not just the IDF that's there. No less important, Israeli citizens, pioneers, Jews who settled in the ancient homeland, the cradle of our nationality, and they cling to the good land. The soldiers see who they are defending, and because of their scattered presence, the IDF can thwart processes similar to those that took place in Gaza, thus preventing the establishment of a Hamas-Nazi entity on the back of the mountain within spitting distance of Israel's densely populated population centers. Rehovot is located about 70 meters above sea level. Ramallah is located about 900 meters above sea level. Try to protect yourself with such height differences.
In addition, a comparison between the Hamas Charter and the Fatah Charter reveals only tactical differences. The essential similarity is the commitment to the destruction of Israel. Article 20 of the PA Charter erases the Jewish people from the family of nations. This is a genocidal clause. The PA pays salaries to murderers of Jews according to the number of murdered. If there is a perverse thought of bringing the PA to Gaza after the collapse of Hamas, salaries will also be paid to terrorists who raped our daughters, beheaded our sons and burned our children alive. Payment to murderers of Jews is an official law of the "moderate" PA. Let's hope the number of innocents has diminished; The difference between Hamas and the PA is in their ability to harm us. Our pioneers on the back of the mountain are our safety belt.
3. Victory and state or jug of oil? Hanukkah today. For about 300 years we celebrated the victories over the Seleucid Empire (from Antiochus IV onwards) in the revolt that began in 167 BCE, and the establishment of an independent Jewish state in 142 BCE by Simon the Hasmonean. Maimonides, in his introduction to the laws of Chanukah, emphasizes the political dimension: "And the kingdom returned to Israel for more than two hundred years, until the second destruction." The subsequent revolts against Rome were inspired by the victories of the Hasmoneans.
The failed Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE brought tremendous disaster to the Jewish population, hundreds of settlements were razed to the ground and about half a million (!) were killed. Emperor Hadrian punished the Jews by erasing from the Roman documents all trace of the name of the land "Judah" and removing the name "Palestine" from the necromancer. He became aware of this in the books of the historian Herodotus, who wrote about the Philistine Sea Peoples who disappeared from the region some 800 years before Hadrian.
The Sages apparently understood that another rebellion like this and we lost. Since then, the Book of Maccabees has disappeared, and with it the political and military implications of Chanukah. There is almost no mention of the holiday in the Mishnah and Midrashim. There remains the miracle of the jug of oil to celebrate in our exile. The jug of oil symbolizes the purity of the spirit, the wisdom and love of learning of our people, and the preservation of our culture and faith among the nations. In recent generations we have translated the books of the Maccabees (from "Macbeth", hammer), originally written in Hebrew, and returned the loss to its owner. From the spirit of the Maccabees, we drew courage and spirit to resurrect our homeland and rebuild the State of Israel. In the current war, we were introduced to a new generation of Maccabees, heroes of glory who restored the soul of the people with their devotion, and in their words repeated the heroic speeches of the Hasmoneans.
And so Judah said to his soldiers, astonished by the great army that stood before them in the first battle up Horon (Route 443): "It is easy for many to be surrendered by a few, and there is no restraint before heaven to save many or few; For not in the majority of the victory of war, and from heaven heroism; They come to us with pride and crime to destroy us and our women and sons, and to despise us; And we fight for our souls and our Torah; And he will body them before us. And you don't fear them." In those days at this time.
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