web analytics
May 26, 2013 /17 Sivan, 5773
At a Glance ▼
InDepth
Sponsored Post
The Tosfos Yomtov was convinced that the death of 300,000 –600,000 Jews during the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648-49 were because of improper Tefila. Communicated: Tefilla

Chillul Tefila Bifarhesia, as well as halachicly challenged verbiage and dress, are external manifestations of a critical lack of personal yiras shomayim which has lethal consequences.



TOO SOON

Ceasefire Tonight, Same War All Over Again Day after Tomorrow

Operation Pillar of Defense will only buy Israel a few months of quiet.
tell a friend
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his weekly cabinet meeting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his weekly cabinet meeting.
Photo Credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90

As soon as the IDF started pounding the Gaza strip with massive artillery fire and attacks from the air, it was a sign of the end of this polite skirmish. In fact, as soon as the artillery started, I knew it was either to soften the ground in preparation for the ground invasion, or the final salvo armies traditionally deliver before the truce, to inflict as much damage as they still can, and so they’ll have less to schlep home afterwards.

Wars are a wonderful way to clear up the shelves for the new shipment of ammo.

Like the rest of us, Netanyahu, Barak, Liberman et al have weighed the benefits and risks of a ground invasion of a densely populated and very hostile Gaza, and decided to be prudent. All they need is for one bad move to end up in mass killings of either our boys, God forbid, or, possibly even worse, Arab civilians, two months before the elections. So they kicked the can to themselves down the road, as many have anticipated.

After today’s cabinet meeting, one senior Israeli official told Reuters: “Before deciding on a ground invasion, the prime minister intends to exhaust the diplomatic move in order to see if a long-term ceasefire can be achieved.”

Diplomatic moves must include Egypt, Gaza’s Muslim Brothers’ home office. President Mohamed Morsi took a call from Obama on Monday, with a clear request (we’ll call it that) to make Hamas stop shooting rockets into Israel.

The Egyptians have been working on that project ever since (well, almost two days, but it felt longer). We’ll see what kind of hybrid they’ve cobbled.

Here are the difficulties Israel had to consider:

1. It cannot negotiate with Hamas without directly destabilizing the Fatah government in Judea and Samaria. 2. It cannot invade Gaza without removing Hamas which entails staying there as a provisional government – not something the Israeli PM is looking forward to. 3. Whatever truce is reached tonight will not be worth the paper on which it is written.

All of the above suggests that the military cost of Operation Pillar of Defense, combined with the 1200 reported cases of serious damage to property over the past week – not to speak of the lives lost – will only buy Israel a few months of quiet.

Netanyahu, Barak, and Liberman tonight decided to avoid confronting the bully all the way. But as history teaches us, the bully you failed to confront in 1936, at a relatively low cost, or in 1938, at a higher cost, finally forced you to confront him in 1939 at the highest cost imaginable.

I wish all of us a safe life and a happy Hanukah.

tell a friend

About the Author: JewishPress.com Senior Internet Editor Yori Yanover has been a working journalist since age 17, before he enlisted and worked for Ba'Machane Nachal. Since then he has worked for Israel Shelanu, the US supplement of Yedioth, JCN18.com, USAJewish.com, Lubavitch News Service, Arutz 7 (as DJ on the high seas), and the Grand Street News. He has published two fun books: The Cabalist's Daughter: A Novel of Practical Messianic Redemption, and How Would God REALLY Vote.


You might also be interested in:


one comment so far

You must log in to post a comment.

One Response to “Ceasefire Tonight, Same War All Over Again Day after Tomorrow”

  1. William J Hurst says:
    November 20, 2012 at 6:21 PM

    Doubt if it will last a few months. It is the time when all faces seem to be gathering blackness against Israel – Jer_12:9 Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.
    — Zec_12:2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. —

  2. Arie Rosenrauch says:
    November 20, 2012 at 6:30 PM

    A netanyahu agreement to cease fire now (and it will be called a lull) is an act of cowardice and political suicide. He will be personally responsible for future Israeli deaths.

  3. Jean Pierre Katz says:
    November 20, 2012 at 7:00 PM

    The terms that Hamas with Turkey, Egypt, and the EU will propose include opening the border with Israel and would be a huge victory for Hamas.

    In return Hamas will wait patiently for it's deliveries of atomic weapons from Iran.

  4. Anonymous says:
    November 20, 2012 at 7:42 PM

    I have to laugh at all of you "tough guys" in the USA who are demanding that Israel move forward with a ground attack in Gaza. I wonder if you hawks would be so gung-ho if you were Israeli soldiers. NOT!

  5. Charlie Hall says:
    November 20, 2012 at 7:45 PM

    I support whatever the decision the Israeli government makes. Those of us in the diaspora are not in a position to second guess.

  6. Darryl Harris says:
    November 20, 2012 at 8:52 PM

    It's time for our beloved. Israel to start. The found war and kill these militant. Muslims that only want to terrorize God's people. Let's give them what they want lets setup the meeting. I'm sure instead of virgins they will get will be hell itself

  7. Myriam Obadia says:
    November 21, 2012 at 6:14 AM

    It didn't even last that long. 1st siren on Ashkelon around 7AM. Oh well, how does one reason with a death worshiper?

  8. Yudha Lkp Skill Pyk says:
    November 21, 2012 at 9:56 PM

    IRAQ, IRAN AND PALESTINE WILL KILL ALL JEWISH IN THE WORLD…

  9. Yudha Lkp Skill Pyk says:
    November 21, 2012 at 10:00 PM

    INCLUDING MANY ROCKET FROM LEBANON KILL JEWISH….

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Current Top Story
IDF Etzion brigade commander Col. Yaniv Alalouf (with Jewish men who fought in Gush Etzion in 1948).
Colonel: IDF to Build Bridge to Bypass Terrorist Village in Judea
Latest Indepth Stories
Rabbi William Handler
InDepth → Op-Eds

If you’re lucky enough to avoid losing your children, you’re still not home free.

Al-Dura_Postage_Stamp
InDepth → Op-Eds

France 2 and Enderlin must have their press accreditation revoked and be thrown out of Israel.

Palestinian kindergarten children enacting a military operation.
InDepth → Op-Eds

Slaughter is a routine, widespread practice among many Moslem families.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has said he will never recognize a Jewish state and there will be no Jews allowed in a Palestinian State.
InDepth → Op-Eds

parently an affront to J Street’s worldview, the focus of which appears to be the creation of a Palestinian State, whether or not that will bring peace.

InDepth → Columns → Moshe Feiglin

The importance of the caucus on organ harvesting in China, sponsored recently by the Liberal Lobby in the Knesset, cannot be exaggerated.

InDepth → Columns → Dov Shurin

My mother, the eldest daughter of Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky, zt”l, was niftar last month at the age of 92. She took her last breath in her home in Efrat, Israel, next door to the shul that was my father’s for 24 years before his passing in 2007.

InDepth → Columns → Louis Rene Beres

Following the Boston Marathon bombing, one crucial point will likely remain overlooked. The most loathsome aspect of this or any other terror bombing attack on civilians will always lie in the inexpressibility of physical pain. While all decent people will abhor the idea of bombs expressly directed at the innocent, whether here or in other countries, none will ever be able to process the very deepest horrors of what has been inflicted.

InDepth → Columns → Keeping Jerusalem

It’s only natural to see increasing evidence of Jerusalem’s glorious Jewish past being unearthed, quite literally, under modern Israeli sovereignty. The new archaeological finds are also very timely – as the Arab onslaught attempting to detach Jerusalem from its Jewish roots gains steam, the facts on the ground, or “under” the ground, show quite otherwise.

InDepth → Op-Eds

The Talmud (Berachot 26b) says, “tefillot avot tiknum” – “prayer was established by the avot.” The Talmud then uses the following verse (Bereshit 19:27) to prove how Avraham established prayer: “Vayaskem Avraham baboker el hamakom asher amad sham et pnei Hashem” – “And Avraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before God.”

InDepth → Op-Eds

Nearly 13 years ago, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak journeyed to Camp David to end the conflict with the Palestinians. With the approval of President Clinton, he offered Yasir Arafat an independent Palestinian state in almost all of the West Bank, Gaza and in part of Jerusalem. Arafat said no.

InDepth → Op-Eds

The news that the Internal Revenue Service unfairly targeted conservative groups has brought renewed spotlight on a 2010 lawsuit filed by the pro-Israel group Z Street, which alleges it was also singled out by the IRS when applying for tax-exempt status.

InDepth → Editorial

In an editorial last week (“Circling the Wagons”) we noted the efforts by the administration and its supporters to dismiss allegations that the government’s spin on the Benghazi attack was designed to shield the president and that the IRS was improperly used to stifle opposition to Mr. Obama’s reelection.

InDepth → Editorial

As the controversies besetting the Obama administration continue to grow in number and intensity, the prospect that President Obama would seriously consider military action against Iran, should that country continue its drive to become a nuclear power, becomes more and more remote. So we welcome the current enhancement of sanctions against Iran on the federal and New York State levels.

More Articles from Yori Yanover
Safety without Numbers
News → Photos

A Jewish young man waving an Israeli flag as part of a Judea-wide protest on an intersection of Route 60, near the Arab village of Al-Khader (Beitar Junction) , May 24, 2013. The organizers had possibly envisioned thousands of fellow Jewish residents showing up to protest the stone and firebomb throwing by local Arabs. But [...]

Shai Agassi on the future of the electric car
Media → Video Picks

Better Place, the Israeli electric car company that was going to revolutionize car driving in Israel and the world, will file for bankruptcy this week. Shai Agassi is the Israeli founder and former CEO of Better Place, which has “developed a model and infrastructure for employing electric cars as an alternative to fossil fuel technology.” [...]

News → Photos

On Friday I described the reactions I’ve witnessed of babies tasting ice cream for the first time. Their eyes light up and it’s as if they are reassessing all the possibilities presented by the planet where they’ve just landed. For comparison, here’s a Russian girl tasting her first falafel. Do you see the light in [...]

News → Hezbollah

“Syria is the backbone of the resistance and we will not sit with our hands crossed.”

News → Antisemitism

He actually uttered those words: “I sincerely offer my apologies.”

News → Europe

Iran is “advancing its enrichment program in blatant violation of its international obligations.”

News → Photos

This Toldos Aharon Chassid is carrying his 3-year-old son in the streets of Meah Shearim, Jerusalem. The boy is about to start attending Cheder, and so he is brought to the Rebbe for a blessing. But to keep the little one from being exposed to forbidden sights, he is wrapped, head to toe, in a [...]

Media → Video Picks

An Hezbollah convoy, on its way to assist the Assad government side in the intense fighting in Qusair, was attacked by Syrian rebels on Thursday. The video shows several bodies of killed Hezbollah soldiers, in addition to trucks that appear to have been hit by mortar and rocket fire. As always, we wish both sides [...]

    Latest Poll

    If you could only choose one of the following scenarios regarding Chareidi IDF service, which would you choose?





    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...

Printed from: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/analysis/ceasefire-tonight-same-war-all-over-again-day-after-tomorrow/2012/11/20/

Scan this QR code to visit this page online:

No related posts.

Close