Is your heart made of stone? If it isn't, you need to give a thought to Yazan Kafarneh, the ten-year-old cerebral palsy Palestinian boy whose sufferings and skeletal image have become the newest ploy in Hamas's propaganda war against Israel.
Hamas and the activist aid groups that
collaborate with it say some 20 Gaza children like Kafarneh have already died
from malnutrition and dehydration. And for once, I have no reason to doubt
them.
The deplorable humanitarian conditions in Gaza are wrongly (but intentionally) being blamed on Israel – not Hamas – including by the Biden administration. That and the approaching "holy" month of Ramadan are being used as leverage to force Israel to…what precisely?
To halt its military campaign and
agree to an indefinite ceasefire. This would give Hamas breathing room to regroup
and reassert its control over Gaza. Billions of aid dollars would flow into the Strip,
which the terror group would again siphon. UNWRA, the Palestinian-infiltrated
relief agency that is forbidden to resettle refugees, would be reconstituted.
And in the fullness of time, Hamas – which is committed to Israel's
destruction, not a Palestinian state alongside it – would be ready to fight
again.
In return for snapping up this opportunity
for a devastating strategic defeat, Israel would get back some of its 130 or so captives, or their remains the good citizens of Gaza are still holding. That's hardly all. Israel would need to release from its prisons
the next generation of Mohamed Deifs, Yahya Sinwars, and Marwan Iss's, who would mastermind
in the fullness of time their own onslaught.
From the perspective of the "international
community," we had better capitulate before Ramadan, the Muslim month of
fasting, prayer, and reflection. It is also, as anyone familiar with
contemporary Islamic civilizations knows, a period of intramural bloodletting
and violence against non-Muslims.
Several near-certainties accompany Ramadan:
in Islamic countries, the stock market climbs; in Jerusalem, the already
amplified pre-dawn adhān, or call to prayer, becomes even more piercing than
usual; and there is a rise in Muslim bloodletting.
No doubt, for many of the faithful, Ramadan
is a period of quiet reflection and spiritual serenity. For others, however,
especially in places where large numbers of Muslims cross paths with Hindus,
Christians, Buddhists, or Jews, it is an occasion for barbarity.
It is said that the gates of hell are
closed during Ramadan, funneling martyrs to heaven with ease.
Jihadist groups
tend to conduct more terrorist attacks during Ramadan than on non-Ramadan days.
No amount of ecumenical goodwill can change
the fact that Ramadan is a blood-soaked period.
Yahya Sinwar is not rushing to surrender so that suffering Palestinians can enjoy a tranquil Ramadan in Gaza. But if Western patsies want to believe Ramadan is like Lent or the Chinese New Year, he's not about to disabuse them.
That said, Israel should do nothing to make it easier for the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists to mobilize uninvolved believers in the struggle against it who would use Ramadan as a cudgel. Hence, we should tread lightly on the Temple Mount. We don't need to further expand the Gaza conflict to the rest of the land of Israel. Hamas does.
In Gaza, Ben Caspit, a veteran pundit, has suggested
that we call the Ramadan ceasefire bluff and hold off taking Rafiah – the last Hamas
stronghold – until after the month is over. I am agnostic on this matter as I am not
privy to the minutia of the military situation. I just worry about how long the IDF can remain in a
holding pattern while the Palestinian population of Gaza is living under Hamas-generated
Hobbesian conditions.
The US decision to drop aid by parachute
and build a makeshift pier off Gaza is the Biden administration's way of shaming
Israel. They want to make it look like Israel is holding up aid to Gaza.
In just the past 24 hours, even as Hamas is shooting at us, we sent a 28-truck convoy carrying food into northern Gaza. Likewise, we coordinated with UNICEF and WHO missions to refuel Al Ahali Hospital and water pumping facilities. Israel also facilitated the airdropping of 288 packages of humanitarian aid. The IDF controls the airspace over Gaza.
Israel is facing a relentless diplomatic and propaganda blitz. The Arabs who control the UN General Assembly are mustering votes to suspend Israel's membership. The Biden/Harris 2024 campaign, which is struggling to achieve a come-from-behind victory against Donald Trump, is losing its woke, Jewish-quisling, Muslim, and African American base because of the president's military backing for Israel. Western media intones the vacuous two-state solution mantra religiously as if the Palestinian Arabs want to live alongside a national homeland for the Jewish people. As if Israel is primarily responsible for the failure of the two-state approach.
Internally, Binyamin
Netanyahu shows no sign of stepping down, and his political survival remains his first priority.
Israel's non-messianic, non-apocalyptic population (still, I venture, the majority) is growing weary with the prime minister's political partners. Last night, the Supreme Spiritual Leader of the Shas Party, who also happens to be on the state payroll as
Sephardic Chief Rabbi, declared that if his constituents were forced to
do any form of national service, including the army, he would advise them to relocate to the Galut. Twenty years or so of Netanyahu's rule has created a Hardal and
Haredi Political Golem that is out of control.
Meanwhile, Iran is waiting in the wings,
watching our divisions and the fatigue the Biden White House is displaying in Gaza. If Israel is forced
to abandon its mission of defanging Hamas and ensuring it cannot rule the Strip,
that will bring relief to Hezbollah, which controls the failed state of
Lebanon. Nasrallah's shock troops remain positioned to strike Israel when the Teheran mullahs give the order.
In the final analysis, Israel's fate is not
in its own hands. We are burning through our ammunition and military supplies.
We can't sustain a war against the Iranian Empire without US backing. Moreover, one of
the unintended consequences of the Hamas attack on October 7th is that
it catalyzed a global tsunami of anti-Israelism and antisemitism from New York
to Melbourne and from Pretoria to London.
Yet this much is clear: Defeat in Gaza – meaning leaving Hamas
capable of fighting another day and the Palestinian polity emboldened in its
zero-sum goal of Israel's destruction – will only make things worse for the
Diaspora.
This is the unadorned reality as we begin
the Day 156 of the Gaza war. Yazan Kafarneh does not deserve to suffer. Yet those responsible for his misery - and the sufferings of the other innocent Palestinian children in Gaza - are about to get away with it unless the US administration comes to its senses.
So well argued and written Elliot.....Jeff
ReplyDeleteThank you, Elliot Jager, for giving clarity here. I believe that the best case scenario for all sides will be an unconditional Hamas surrender. I am preplexed why we don't hear that call coming from well meaning governments. Also, why is Israel not pushing this idea more? JRothenberg
ReplyDeleteDefense Minister Gallant basically called for forced Haredi conscription. Opening a big mouth invited precisely the reply given by the Chief Sephardic Rabbi. There are better and quiter ways to achieve the goal of conscriping more from the Haredi community into the IDF. Quieter does not seem to be an atribute of Israeli culture, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteAs for leadership, a commission of inquiry needs to be established to determine responsibility and culpability that resulted in a failed conceptzia by military, intelligence, and political leaders, irrespective of political party, after this war.