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| Hersh Goldberg-Polin - one of the over 100 hostages still in Hamas captivity |
Please do not misunderstand. I have not changed my mind a bit. I fully support Israel’s goal of eradicating Hamas. Which if I understand correctly does not mean killing every man woman and child that belongs to that terrorist organization. But if that is not their goal, what is Israel’s end game? There has to be a realistic goal that will prevent Hamas from ever achieving their goal of annihilating the Jewish people of Israel, occupying the land, and renaming it Palestine as an Islamic state.
Israel of course has every right to defend itself from this heinous group of Jew hating savages and to swat them down like mosquitoes at a picnic. Which is what they are trying to do. And have been trying to do for over 10 months now.
At this point I want to reiterate a few thigs that I have said in the past. The Palestinian carnage, and general mayhem taking place in Gaza is the direct responsibility of the above mentioned savages. The numbers coming out of the so-called Hamas Health Ministry are exaggerated; do not reflect actual terrorists killed among them; nor do they reflect the fact that those terrorists deliberately embedded themselves among civilians; and the Israel telegraphed virtually all of their airstrikes urging Palestinians to evacuate.
Nothing there has changed, And yet Hamas rejoices at the fact that world opinion ignores all of that which has maximum negative implications for Israel as committing genocide!
Meanwhile there is the niggling little detail of the hostages taken by Hamas, They are still in captivity. Sadly, I do not see them being released any time soon. Certainly not all of them even if by some miracle a 6 week cease fire deal is reached where about 30 (of the over 100) are exchanged for 700 Palestinian criminals sitting in Israel prisons. (Some with blood on their hands!)
This is not to say that a deal should not be made. It is just to point out the asymmetry of such a deal that would be to Hamas’s great advantage. And yet, with all the claims by US officials that ‘we are closer than ever to a hostage-ceasefire deal’ I do not believe for a second that this will happen any time soon if at all.
The ‘deal-breaker’ is as follows. Hamas wants to survive and live to fight another day. Israel wants to annihilate them. These two positions are incompatible and non negotiable. The goals of each side are at cross purposes.
And so the war will go on. But as I indicated I don’t think the goal of completely eliminating Hamas is achievable. Every Gaza Palestinian is a potential member of Hamas. The more Israel beats them up. the more Palestinian youth will want to join the fight to do whatever it takes to eradicate the Jewish ‘menace in Palestine’ so they can have ‘their’ land back.
The only way Israel can eliminate Hamas is to eliminate Palestinians. Which would of course be actual genocide.
I am not in the prime minister’s shoes. And unlike his many detractors, I do not believe his motives are purely selfish. I believe that he actually believes winning the war is achievable. I hope that’s true.
But what does winning mean? At which point will Israel be able to say, ‘We won!’ And even if that were possible somehow in the long run, what about other Jihadist groups that will surely take their place along with support of the Palestinians?
Admittedly, from my perspective sitting here in the US, I am in no position to know where Israel is holding toward that goal. But it seems to me that we are witnessing a never ending war. After 10 months of fighting, Israel has not succeeded yet. What will it take to end this miserable war and get those hostages home – back to their families?
I believe (again, from my admittedly limited perspective) Israel has effectively destroyed Hamas’s ability to attack Israel again the way they did on October 7th. They will never destroy the ideology of Hamas and all terrorists groups whose aim is Israel’s destruction and the creation of an Islamic regime in its place. Israel must instead treat Hamas like any other band of terrorists. With the kind of watchful eye that did not exist on that fateful October day. (Had it existed, we would not be where we are today.)
If that’s true. They should be focusing entirely on getting the hostages back, making some kind of deal that will make it impossible for Gaza to smuggle rockets, weapons, and ammunition from Iran.
I would love to go back to the way things were before that October day. When there were no hostages; no Holocaust level mass casualty attack against the Jewish people; and Israel was at relative peace with its neighbors. Maybe then they can also go back to making progress towards normalizing relations with other Arab nations like Saudi Arabia. Wouldn’t that be great? Because as things stand now, I am just plain sick of it all!