We Lost the War
Latest update: November 23rd, 2012
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Three Tenors of the Apocalypse
Photo Credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90
The last “Color Red” siren was sounded in Regional Council Sha’ar HaNegev at precisely 10:58 PM, and since then—11 hours, give or take—it’s been quiet in the Jewish settlements around the Gaza Strip. Both the IDF and the terrorists have been sticking to their commitment. (Update: The Jewish Press just reported, at 10:15 AM Thursday, that a rocket fired at Regional Council Ashkelon Coast exploded over Arab territory).
Also, according to the IDF Spokesman’s office, out of the 13 rockets and mortar shells fired after the official ceasefire had begun, at 9 PM, 10 fell inside Gaza, two fell in open areas in Israel, causing no damage, and one was intercepted by the Iron Dome system.
I’ll deal in a minute with the deeper meaning of having reached a ceasefire through the good services of the U.S. and a Muslim Brother Egyptian president, and also what it means that Israel has now de facto recognized the Hamas government. But before we deal with that, and the rest of the moral, spiritual, and, of course, military and political aspects of this bizarre truce, let’s review what has been achieved over the past week or so of fighting.
Here are the IDF’s official figures: During Operation Pillar of Defense, aka Pillar of Cloud (the literal meaning of “Amud Anan”): The IDF attacked 1500 targets, including 19 major Hamas command centers, operational control centers and senior headquarters. 30 senior terrorists were attacked, wreaking havoc on Hamas’s short-term command and control issues. Hundreds of underground launchers were attacked and destroyed. 140 smuggling tunnels and 66 fighting tunnels were demolished. Dozens of Hamas war rooms and camps were attacked. 26 sites that manufactured and stored weapons were destroyed. Dozens of long-range launchers were destroyed.
These are the top Hamas operatives killed during the operation:
11.14: Ahmad Sa’id Khalil Jabari, head of the military wing of Hamas.
11. 15: Bahabseh Hassan Awadh Mesmeh, senior Hamas police commander.
11.16: Ahmad Abu Jalal, commander of the military wing Al-Mu’az and Khaled Sha’ar, a senior commander of Hamas’s anti-tank system.
11.17: Osama Kadi, a senior activist in southern Gaza smuggling operations and Muhammad Kalab, an activist in the air defense array.
In other words, Israel gained no strategic asset at all. As has been shown in the past with the assassination of every major, “irreplaceable,” terror genius, each time we kill one of those, soon enough he is replaced, and the terrorist system absorbs the damage skillfully, quickly returning to its former functionality if not better.
As the old adage says: the graveyards are full of irreplaceable people.
Yesterday I uploaded a bunch of pictures of the Hamas government district after the IAF had pounded it overnight. It looked like a junkyard, it reminded me of images of Stalingrad during the war. If, God forbid, they had been able to inflict this kind of damage on us, you’d see the lines of Israelis at Ben Gurion airport stretching all the way to Tel Aviv, with everybody holding tickets for safe havens in Warsaw, Berlin, and New York City.
But the Arabs in Gaza, at least the Hamasniks among them, are celebrating. Heck, they celebrate so hard, one got killed and three wounded just from the happy shooting in the air! They live like rats underground, they risk their lives every day, moving Iranian, Ukrainian, Chinese and Russian death technology through the Egyptian desert from the Sudan, from Libya, from wherever they can. Now and then the IAF rains death on their heads and they retreat, pause, and get started all over again.
The last time I saw that kind of dedication on our side was in 1973, when a tiny group of IDF armor soldiers held the entire Syrian army at bay, keeping it from pouring into northern Israel.
But during that 1973 war Israel was transformed. We were forced to take instructions from our masters in Washington, who had different designs for us. It’s true that, back in 1956, we were also ordered by a U.S. president to pull out of the Sinai and give up the territory we had gained in battle. But in 1973 we had an opportunity to finally and unequivocally stake our claim to our homeland, make a clear statement about the fact that we belong here, and will stay here forever, God willing.
Back in 1973, while the invading Egyptian Third Army was surrounded and under a hermetically sealed siege, east of the Suez Canal, the IDF was on the African side of the water, in a town called Faid, 30 miles or so from the pyramids. There was nothing between us and Cairo, there was no Egyptian military left, including their airforce. We had an opportunity to take Cairo. Not to annex it, not to expand Israel into another continent – but to rub their noses in it. We had them down, with our boots on their necks, and we pulled back.
It was downhill from there. In less than seven years, the man who is more responsible than any Jew in history for Israel’s current humiliation, Prime Minister Menachem Begin, signed an agreement that instituted a new morality: If you come to murder me and I overcome you and take your land, you can get your land back if you promise not to murder me.
The Oslo Accords were merely the logical extension of that immoral pact, sealing a deal whereby troops of professional Arab murderers—on the brink of extinction, mid you— were imported from Tunisia and from other spots in the Middle East, to govern in territories which we promptly vacated, in exchange for the same promise: we won’t murder you.
The only difference was that much of the Sinai territory we gave back in 1979 was far away from Jewish homes (with the distinct exception of the city of Yamit). But the land we handed our murderers in 1994 was right next door to us. We actually invited bands of armed, ruthless killers to settle across the street from us and live in peace.
Ever since that point in our history, we’ve switched completely from fighting wars—to containing terrorism. Until that point we still had some notions about winning: we did chase Arafat and his killers from Lebanon. We did maintain a satellite Christian Lebanese army to fight the Hezbollah. But over the past 18 years we’ve moved to contain, contain, contain.
We are no longer interested in the other side—as far as we’re concerned they could kill each other, as long as they don’t do anything to us. This is why we built the despicable Security Wall between us and the PA (leaving whole swaths of Jewish towns and villages on the wrong side). And this is why we created the magnificent technological marvel, the Iron Dome. Because we are in the business of containing the terrorists and absorbing their attacks. We are definitely not in the business of killing the terrorists and freeing both our own people and the civilians suffering under the terrorist yoke across the border.
Last night I watched three morally corrupt men: Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Barak, and Foreign Minister Liberman, renege on every last statement they had ever made regarding the war against Hamas.
Back in 2008, Netanyahu campaigned in the southern communities with the slogan of We Must Topple the Hamas, no ceasefire, no negotiations. And Liberman actually demanded, as a condition of his joining a Likud-led coalition government, that destroying the Hamas be included as a bona fide item in the coalition agreement. And Barak, after the 2008 Cast Lead operation, assured us that the Hamas would never be able to re-start firing at Israel after the damage they had sustained.
Last night the three tenors of the apocalypse gave a de facto recognition to Hamas as the legitimate government of Gaza, boosted Muslim Brother Egyptian president Morsi’s world status as peace maker and a strong ally of the U.S. (who will give him $12 billion to shore up his current social disasters), and showed the Arabs that the only way to get anything from Israel is through violence against civilian Jews.
The quiet will be over soon enough, the civilian casualties will start mounting again, and we will be right back where we started, with no strategic assets and several billion dollars poorer.
We’ve lost this war.
tell a friendAbout 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.
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41 Responses to “We Lost the War”
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Israel may have lost a battle but never the war
Well put together article, Yori. Please keep it up on top for a long time. We are going to suffer for a long time for this war hasn't ended and will not end as long as we elect faithless stooges as leaders.
Operation Pillar of Cloud turned into pillar of clutz.
Although there were some positives from the Pillar of Cloud, the future Cumulonimbus negatives far outweigh the small puff of cloud.
Operation Pillar of Cloud should have been completed–it will be completed at some point in the future!
Joel 3:19-20
19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
Yoni very well said. We should have leveled Gaza and drove Hamas six feet into the ground and covered them up with their own ashes and dirt.
Its imposible while we have merchants leading the country… Failed messiahs
Charge them personaly brothers for every unnecessary lost of life at court! Make them pay with their own liberty-life for such catastrphic decisions made. Shalom!
I am in total agremeent with the article. EXCEPT! I put the problem back to the Six Day War when Israel failed to push all the Arabs over the Jordan or Nile Rivers! Then they Arabs would have their palestine in Jordan and Egypt would welcome their brother Arabs into their society. They hate Jews anyway, so they would be happily living without having to see any Jews! The world could have yapped, yapped, yapped and so what, Israel would be free and strong and not in the precarious position it is in today! The world yapps anyway!
Fuck the elections! It is not punishment at all! Please, forgive my language. There is no lighter word to describe this…
agreed…especially regarding the Oslo Agreement….It is time to scrap the accord which merely lent legitimacy the PLO of Yasser Arafat, which is now the PLO of Hamas. Allowing a caveman in a suit , such as Morsi to negotiate a settlement is nincompoopery at its most obvious.
I have seen a lot of change in the people of Israel in the last 20 years for the good, but our leaders have not changed, but getting worse, and arrogant.
The cease fire, gives Hamas time to restock their smuggled arms and start all over again.
I don't know what could be called a "victory". Armor suited for fighting in open space, not in congested city streets. Mistake was to cede the Strip in the first place. That error cannot be undone. Had better accept the idea that all Israel will ever get is an armed truce. All else is fantasy, and fantasies are childish.
The Muslim world is greatly encouraged that it only took a woman, Hillary and her magic spell to come to Jerusalem and stop the big mirage, Netanyahu.
They've know for a long time how easy it is to restrain Israel and are much more confident as we enter into another even more dangerous chapter in the Middle East thanks to Israel's weak, appeasing, retreating lack of leadership that gives in to any and all pressure.
Secular Jewish rule does not have the faith to stand and this is why the worthless talker and the Dhimmi Minister Barak are always backing down.
Shame you don't post your name and email address. I would like to correspong with those of words of truth. What you said, I could not said better.
we as jews, all need to come together as one people with one mindset and do teshuva and pray for meshiac to come. He will be the one to make the right descisions for our people.
The cease fire is just that, As soon as Hamas or one of Irans other proxy's is ready and resupplied by Iran, it will start again.Arab military history has always been to use cease fires and truces to buy time to resupplyly regroup and then to attack again. As long as the main point of thier culture and belief system teaches and preaches destruction of Israel an Jew hatred there will bew no peace. Israel will only have peace by military means.
We have not won one since 1967!
In 1973 victory was snatched from Israel by Kissinger & C. at the 101 Km of the Cairo Suez Road, after Kissinger suggested not to humiliate the Arabs by arriving all the way to Cairo, that was without any defense.
It was after the 6 day war that America intered into Israeli politics. Go figure and read www hirhome dot com "Is America an ally of Israel?"
Occupying Cairo would have been every bit the disaster as the occupation of Beirut turned out to be in 1982.
Charlie Hall: NOT occupy Cairo, but DEFEAT EGYPT, ENTER CAIRO, HUMILIATE THE DEFEATED ATTACKERS, SHOW WHO WON TO THE WHOLE ARAB WORLD, AND GET OUT.They would have never been able to say that they won and the Arabs would have thought twice before screwing with Israel again 'cause one thing is not to win in Israel, completely another to lose a CAPITAL. Same thing for Damascus! We were 35 KM away!!
Beirut was NEVER occupied by Israel.
NO VICTORY FOR NO ONE SHAME.
At least this piece is well- argued and shows a knowledge of history. I believe however , and I may be wrong, that iit is unrealistic and unfair. A military operation was conducted with the aim of ending rocket and missile fire into Israel. This has been achieved for now with minimum loss on the Israeli side. The other side caused disturbance and havoc, upset normal life in the South of Israel but did not succeed in destroying much of anything. Israel's military superiority, its precision in use of weapons was made clear to anyone who might wish to attack us. The exemplary behavior of the citizens of Israel in their own self- defense was also clear.
We did not put the Muslim Brotherhood in power in Egypt. We have to deal with the reality.
By going for an 'absolute answer' entering Hamas- land and destroying more rocket- launchers we would have isolated ourselves globally.Losing more of our soldiers through a prolonged occupation of Gaza would drain our morale as well as further isolating us in the world.
This operation had maximum diplomatic support possible for Israel to attain i.e. The United States and its Western allies. We preserved that support.
The author of this article seems to think that by acting by ourselves alone and by cutting ourselves off completely from the U.S. we will gain maximum security. I do not think that the Prime Minister agrees with this, and I believe almost all serious students of Israeli military and political affairs would agree with him.
It is foolishness to say "Israel lost the war ". If the peace treaty can stop rocket attacks and terrorist attack from Gaza it is a great victory without much bloodshed. If Hams break the peace agreement Israel has the right and ability to take over Gaza, so please don't worry thinking Israel lost the war.
Daniel Paul K — Let's analyze what you've written. Israel just spent upwards of a billion dollars to get to where it was a month ago, when the Hamas could, at will, start killing its citizens. At which point Israel will have the right to spend another billion dollars, to get back to where it is today. And you define this is a great victory.
I suggest you call up the homes of the five Israelis and 50 or so Arab civilians who were killed as this amazing victory was achieved.
What I've described is the delusional attempt to contain terrorists. History has proven that it cannot be done. They will run you ragged and laugh at your retaliations. The death of their own people is meaningless to them, they encourage it.
So long as Israel plays the Hamas game, it will continue to lose, until the Hamas is able to strike a debilitating blow to its civilian center, killing thousands — think twin towers — at which point a bewildered Israel could collapse on its own weight.
This is the Iranian strategy, and so far it's a winner.
i liked very much what you wrote, i do think that we should make them pay for their actions before implementing a cease fire. for example hammas wants to expand their waters for "fishing purposes" i think that we should cut their 3 mile range to 1.5 miles instead of increasing it. we should double or triple their energy costs and tax their citizens in every single way possible. causing extreme financial hardship on the arabs and depleating their resourses will stop them and eventually they will leave gaza. it wont happen over night, but it will happen. force is the only thing that they understand.
Actually, from a strategic perspective, *status quo ante* in a war you did not start is a victory.
The Jewish Press is a schmata.
And the Beacon Mag is a Boosha.
Ira Tick — Feeling better now?
It is hard to understand position of Israeli government concerning safety of their people.and it's trully pathetic.people give up their rights and freedoms in return for promised protection on behalf of the government.the question is whom exactly israeli government protecting?
As someone who follows what goes on in Israel regularly, I don't think there has ever been a time when I have been more disappointed in Israel as I am right now. Everyday, I would read about one atrocity or another befalling an innocent Israeli citizen. Either from Hamas or the many other unsavory characters that inhabit the region. But, Hamas was probably the biggest thorn in Israel's side, this went on for years, blowing up school buses, shooting rockets, abductions, rape, and murder. Of course, Israel has do deal with Hezbollah, the Palestinians, and regular Arab thugs as well. I was so proud when I saw Israel finally say, enough is enough, and we we will not put up with anymore of the insanity that Hamas and others routinely perpetrated against Israel. It was clear to see, that Israel's offensive was well planned and coordinated and was working quite nicely. Of course, one of my concerns came true soon enough. Outside forces began to increase their pressure against Israel. But, I was hopeful Israel would ignore the naysayers and carry on with their important work. The next day, I see Hillary Clinton in Israel and immediately I knew why she was there. Still, I hoped Netanyahu would tell Clinton, we appreciate your concern, but this situation has gone on for far too long, and we cannot allow this to continue. Deep in my gut though, I knew in the past Netanyahu did not stand up against the Obama administration. My fears came to fruition when I read this morning a "ceasefire"was agreed. My feelings changed from being concerned to infuriated. History has shown, the only way to get rid of dictators, tyrants, and terrorists is with brute force. Israel had Hamas on the run, they were making steady progress, they just needed to keep it up and finish the job so finally Israel could be rid of scourge like Hamas and innocent Israelis could live like normal human beings. Hamas and other Israeli enemies will consider this a victory, they can say they made Israel stand down, we stood up to them and won. No rational human being honestly believes that Hamas will honor any agreement made to stop killing Israelis. We can expect very soon that those rockets will be reigning down on Israel again very soon. More innocent Israelis will be murdered, and the aggression will only worsen. Some have said, if Israel were to use ground forces the casualties would have risen, perhaps that's true, but sometimes it must be done for the greater good. If we were to have that attitude in world war two, the Nazis would be running the world right now. Yes, in war there is casualties but in the long run it would have saved many more Israeli lives. For the life of me, I can't figure out what kind of hold Obama has over Netanyahu, who actually called Obama to thank him, for what. Obama was the one that put the Muslim Brotherhood in power in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood went to Gaza, not to tell Hamas to stand down, but to express their support. They used the same Muslim Brotherhood to mediate the cease fire. Any leader of Israel must be strong in order to safeguard the people and land of Israel, they must stand strong against outside forces that don't have Israel's best interest in mind. Netanyahu has failed repeatedly on both accounts, as such, Israel needs new leadership.
Just imagine what you might do in Bibi's place if you were told by Clinton that two USA Navy ships loaded with Marines are heading toward Israel, will land and take over the IDF command center if you (Bibi) don't put a stop to strikes and sign a ceasefire RIGHT NOW and you might "accidentally" get killed in the process.
its a money thing. israelis are very tough, the only thing that will influence is the cash. once that flow stops from amercia we wont have to listen to clinton crap any longer and we will in fact do what is truley necessary to secure israel and protect her people.