As the gruesome images fade from the public’s mind, humanitarian crisis isn’t a side effect, it’s the aim
An Israeli ground invasion in Gaza is unavoidable. By the time you read this, perhaps it will already have begun. If not, it is only because it takes time to plan. There is no other way to wipe out Hamas’ infrastructure and fighters, and there is no other military, political or moral future for Israel other than by totally destroying Hamas. There is no way to do that without a ground invasion.
Right now, the world is supportive of Israel. The world always is, at first, when Israel, or Jews, suffer and die. We have no illusions. The world’s current support for Israel’s right to defend itself against savagery will slowly fade as the costs of an Israeli ground invasion mounts. The costs are frightening in likely Israeli lives lost and likely civilian casualties in Gaza. There will be a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. There will be short memories of the humanitarian crisis that caused Israel’s invasion of Gaza to begin with.
“Humanitarian crisis”: perhaps that is putting it wrong. A humanitarian crisis is typically an unfortunate side effect. Not so with Hamas. Its goal is to dehumanize in the worst way: Kill. Kill. Kill. For no other reason than to kill. Women. Children. Soldiers. Partygoers. Any Israeli, even those who are Arab. Any Jews. Hamas’ method and mentality are to go house to house, to kill any Israelis its operatives can find. Its method and mentality are also to separate families, to take hostages.
Herein lies the most painful aspect of the inevitable Israeli ground invasion.
Israel will not want to kill its own citizens as Israel seeks to kill those who desire to, and do, kill Israelis. It will be excruciatingly hard for Israel to avoid killing its own citizens held by Hamas in locations unknown without slowing and otherwise compromising its ground invasion.
Israel will not want to repeat the mistake it made in trading 1,000 imprisoned Arab terrorists to secure the freedom of one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas in 2006. Some of those released terrorists came back to kill innocent Israelis, and those Hamas operatives who hold Israel’s hostages will no doubt do the same if they are not wiped out. We fervently pray these evil people can meet their end without ending the lives of those Israeli innocents whom they hold.
Be ready for this: pictures of bombed mosques in Gaza followed by an outcry against Israel’s disrespect for Islam. Again, Israel will need to tell the story of Hamas fighters hiding out in mosques, or even using them for bomb factories. Will the world listen this time?
And be ready for this: pictures of thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of Gazans displaced from their homes. Again, Israel will need to tell the story that these civilians are not being driven from their home but are intentionally evacuated for their own safety, so they are not killed along with the Hamas terrorists who plant themselves in their midst. Will the world listen to the true story this time?
Or will the world draw a specious parallel between the Gaza evacuation and the Israeli evacuation? You know: “Both sides suffered.” “Cycle of violence.” “War is hell.” This parallel is specious in the extreme. The massive Israeli evacuation of its own citizenry has already begun from some of Israel’s southern communities. These communities will never again be the same. Israel has initiated this evacuation due to Hamas’ massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7. For a radically different reason, Israel will initiate an evacuation of Gaza’s citizens to protect them as Israel hunts down Hamas killers. Will this elementary distinction be grasped?
Perhaps, it will even be necessary to be ready for this: Gaza without electricity, without water, without medicine, without fuel. That is what an Israeli ground invasion must entail to get the Israeli hostages back. If Hamas can get away with causing a humanitarian-hostage crisis in Israel, it will just come back and do it again. Ultimately, Hamas will hold the whole country hostage if it isn’t forced to return the Israeli hostages.
Right now, the savagery of Hamas has led certain financiers of the Palestinians to reevaluate their policy. Germany, for example. A government minister in Germany is quoted in the Jerusalem Post, “These attacks on Israel mark a terrible fracture. We will now review our entire engagement for the Palestinian territories.” Will this actually take place?
Another German politician is quoted, “All of Europe, all 27 states, must now say: We need a new start and we will no longer finance terrorists.”
Nothing can bring back the dead, nothing will quickly restore Israel’s deterrence or bring peace between Israel and its immediate neighbors, but if a fundamental reevaluation of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists takes place, then at least something positive will come out of Israel’s searing suffering and dangerous self-defense.
Copyright © 2023 by the Intermountain Jewish News
