Two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed and another was reported missing when Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups attacked an IDF post within Israeli territory near the Gaza Strip border, in the pre-dawn hours Sunday.
Now granted, Israel has gone into Aza to find the missing soldier but something needs to be done. Something major. In the last month alone, we've allowed over 200 quassam rockets to hit Sderot and other Israeli cities with little retaliation. What message are we sending the terrorists? Are Olmert's preventative measures & 'Realignment Plan' really going to make a difference? Sometimes I wonder what our leadership really strives for ... American dollars and positive world opinion or the safety of her citizens?
Things are as usual heating up in Israel and no, I'm not talking about Ariel Sharon bolting the Likud to form his own centerist party. I'm talking about yesterday's border incidents with Lebanon and the upcoming confrontation with Iran. Yesterday, a few groups of Hezbollah terrorists crossed the Israeli-Lebanese border with the intent of kidnapping/killing soldiers. Their crossing was accompanied a heavy barrage of LAU missiles. Luckily for us, only 11 Israelis were injured (amongst them, a few civilians in Metula) and 4 Hezbollah terrorists were killed by a soldier (who's only been in the army for 8 months - remarkable) How do we react? We state that if Hezbollah don't escalate the border tensions, we won't take any further action. Escalate? I mean what are our leaders smoking?!?!? Imagine any country in the world taking that stand after yesterday's flare up? To make matters worse in the region, Iran is coming close to the 'point of no return' with regards to completing their nuclear reactor. With their wonderful president (Ahmadinejad) declaring, "Israel must be wiped off the map," it seems that Israel must be ready to act. But seeing how we react to Hezbollah attacks (or terrorist attacks in general nowadays), can the citizens of Israel truly expect our country's leadership to take the necessary steps to protect us?
In my opinion, this all comes down to this holocaust mentality we have re-acquired in the last 20 or so years. It goes without saying, Israel from 1948 to the mid 1980s acted as it saw fit when it came to the protection of her citizens. From border raids of the famous 'Unit 101' in the 1950s, to the preemptive strike in the 1967 Six Day War, to the Entebbe and Sabena Raids, to the famous attack in 1981 on Iraq's nuclear reactor to the assassination of Abu Jihad in Tunis, Israel always made protection of her citizens it's main priority. Where did it change? I wish I knew the answer, but I think irreversible damage was done during the first Gulf War where the US forced Israel to not protect her citizens despite Iraq's continuous launching of scud missiles at our territory. And today, as we approach extremely difficult situations with the aforementioned Hezbollah and Iran, not to mention Hamas and the other Palestinian terror organizations, our leaders (& nation in general) must change their mentality. This Holocaust mentality that for some reason dictates that us Jews succumb to world pressure (or not act like any other normal independent nation) and not protect our citizens is threatening our very existence. The onus is on us to educate the upcoming generation of the importance of remembering that this country was founded after the ashes of 6,000,000 Jews were scattered across Europe and that we have a right to defend our birthright as we see necessary. Let the youth of this nation be proud of our amazing history, both before and after Israel's rebirth in May 1948. Stress the Zionist beliefs and values that inspired generation after generation to stake their claim to this land, and do whatever it would take to 'plant their roots' here. This will take time, but it's a necessity if this dream, which was hatched in 70 CE with our expulsion from the land by the Romans, is to remain a reality. Perhaps no one says it better than Menachem Begin, who 'upset' the whole world in 1981 when he had the Israeli Air Force destroy the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq, "Believe me, the alternative to fighting is Treblinka, and we have resolved that there would be no Treblinkas. This is the moment in which a courageous choice has to be made. The criminal terrorists and the world must know that the Jewish people have a right to self-defense, just like any other people."
"Let his cry and his plea come before You to transform a valley of gloom into a doorway of hope"
Hosea 2:15
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