With the return of the hostages and, minimally, an extended ceasefire, maybe it’s time to look back on some features of the war.
Since Hamas made such a point of raping Israeli women, I predicted that babies would be born to female Jewish captives and Hamas would parade these children around as future shaheeds. While there definitely have been reports of torture and sexual abuse, I have not heard of any child born to the Israeli women during their time in the Gaza dungeons. Another point: many of the captives claim that Hamas tried to get them to convert to Islam. They talked to them endlessly about their religion and offered more food and better conditions for converting. Not one left his or her Judaism. Actually, a fair number of the hostages reported upon release that they increased their religious observance. Some reported an intense closeness to God while in the bowels of hell in Gaza. While Hamas has plenty of supporters at Harvard, its terrorists apparently did not study there:
“Hi, I just killed your family, tortured you and dragged you back to Gaza, where I am starving you while chaining you to a small cage. Would you like to join my religion that makes me do all of these things to you?”
One fellow said that he was given a small radio in order to hear the call to Islamic prayer. He was able to rejigger it to hear Galgalatz, the official radio station of the IDF.
So while many of the captives came out speaking Arabic, none converted to Islam. Rather, some put on kippahs or made it clear that they wanted to make blessings over food or keep the Sabbath. It is not a surprise that one finds faith to keep himself/herself together during the most painful and challenging times in one’s life. One fellow said that to keep sane, he started to talk to a crack in the wall. After a few more iterations of inanimate objects, he began to speak to God. When I saw him, he had his head covered in a kippah.
Another thing that did not appear in Gaza was the assistance of the locals in getting hostages out. Some hostages who were able to get free were returned to captivity by regular Gazans. We know that some of those held were watched by doctors, teachers, and professors. The Gazans are Hamas, and Hamas is Gaza. If Hamas had been winning the war, you would not have heard the complaints about the group. But as they were losing and people’s homes were going atomic, people complained about Hamas—but still never betrayed the location of the Israeli captives.
Immediately after the announcement of the Trump program, the UN said that it had three months of food on hand. Now wait, weren’t they just screaming about a famine and that Israel was starving the Gaza population? I don’t know how many short videos I saw of new restaurants opening in Khan Younis and elsewhere in the enclave. We were all played for genocide (90% of those killed were Hamas operatives), famine (there was and is plenty of food), intentional killing of children (did not happen), and other lies about Israeli behavior. Israel ran an overly professional campaign, warning the locals of impending kinetic action. Never in history have the townies been given so much notice to move themselves and their donkeys away from incoming tank shells and missiles. Israel destroyed much of the housing in Gaza to keep the locals busy in urban renewal and not bomb and rocket manufacturing.
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Another thing that did not happen in Gaza is a change in the population’s attitude. One might argue that the Germans and Japanese—with no better choices available—became different nations after their total defeat and Allied rehabilitation. The Gazans remain the same in their vitriolic hatred of Jews and Israel. If an Israeli accidentally walked down a street in Khan Younis, he would be violently murdered in a manner no different from that in Israeli towns two years ago. There is zero learning curve with the Palestinians: give up terror, have a great life. Stick to terror, and you will live in a stinking, destroyed dump. “Umm, I’ll take what’s behind Door #2.”
While Hamas signed an agreement under external pressure, it apparently did not read the fine print. It returned the live hostages relatively quickly and without the macabre handoff ceremonies. But they also promised to return the murdered Israelis, and Israel has their names and is expecting their prompt return for proper burial. Hamas was shocked—how does the world care about 19 missing dead Israelis and not say a word about thousands of dead Gazans? Well, I’ll share with you some news. Since you, Hamas, gave zero value to the lives of the local population, the world learned from your model. Israel always demanded the return of its people, and put up pictures and put their names forward in public forums. Nobody knows the names of the thousands of Palestinian dead, because you didn’t care about them, and in truth, the louts protesting in the West don’t care about them either. How do we know? When you switched gears and started murdering “collaborators”, the geniuses in the West gave their formal approval for your actions. So, yes, Israel cares about life and its people. And that includes non-Jews, as a Druze officer was just returned to his family. Hamas does not care about anybody, and so no one in the West cares how many bodies are under how many destroyed buildings. You told us that they could die to save Hamas, so they’re dead, and nobody asks about their identity or burial.
Neither the Palestinians nor Israel has changed. The Palestinians are still more interested in destroying Israel than in building a successful and thriving country. Israel still follows international demands, even if they threaten the safety of Israeli citizens. Sure, Israeli soldiers, sailors, and air crews gained exceptional real-world experience in modern urban combat. They learned how to combine drones, planes, ground forces and heavy equipment like tanks and bulldozers. The IDF and the Israel Air Force are now at the top of their game after two years of multi-front war. But the leadership remains the same. When pressure comes to put an anti-Israel Egyptian-led force into Gaza, will Israel say no deal? Such a force will not stop Gaza from rearming but will prevent Israel from making war, with the associated risks of killing foreign soldiers. Israel needs to drop the care for what others think and come up with a plan that renders Gaza non-threatening for the next fifty years. If it means no rebuilding because cement and metal for homes could go for tunnels, then let them live in tents. It’s time for Israel to think about its future before the knee-jerk concern for the displaced Gazans. If they want permanent war, then let them live in the streets and eat UN meals forever.
The ban on fans of Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv football club in Birmingham fits perfectly into the times. England is supposed to be a modern liberal democracy. But the thought of having to stop Muslims from beating Jews is just too much for the politicians and police. So what is the solution? Warn and restrict the Muslims? No! Don’t let Jews come to the match. Israelis are outraged that they cannot see their favorite club, but the British don’t want to have to protect Jews from the local jihadis who are their friends. Tommy Robinson was in Israel this week and was received like a rock star. I wish him well. He’s going to need all the help he can get making England British again.
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