Before being fully awake, I found myself with tears streaming down my face.
It’s an Israeli habit to check the news first thing in the morning, especially during a war.
The news? Nine soldiers dead. Later in the day, the number would increase to thirteen. Helpless, I sat frozen. It is impossible to truly comprehend the enormity of 1400 murdered in the Hamas massacre but nine? 9 families (now 13), with a hole where a beloved son is supposed to be – that my mind understands and it’s unbearable.
One of the families said their son told them: “I don’t want to go fight but I have to. It’s the right thing to do.” The fact that he was right is little comfort to them now.
This is a war we did not choose but it is one we must win.
Israel was soft with Gaza. We imagined that providing employment and helping regular Gazans put food in their families’ mouths would lead them away from Hamas and bring them closer to normalcy. We allowed unruly behavior on our borders because we imagined they would not bring it over our borders.
We were soft. This led them to conclude that we have no honor.
They thought that they could rape, torture, behead and burn and get away with it. Students and media around the world and even the UN are telling them that they are right. Around the world, those who wish to destroy the Nation of Israel have gained the courage to act on their festering hate.
Israel was not founded because of the Holocaust – we had a Holocaust because there was no one to defend us. There was no one to tell those who wished to destroy us that they could not.
Now we have the power to defend ourselves.
Any father whose daughter was gang raped and then torn to pieces (or burnt like my friend’s daughter) would come for each and every one of the perpetrators – and it’s Israel’s job to do so as a country.
This is not about rage. This is not about proportionality either. On the contrary, it is necessary to respond with crushing vengenance that makes it utterly clear to Hamas and everyone who is watching that Jews cannot be brutalized with impunity.
They need to know, without a shadow of a doubt that we meant it when we said NEVER AGAIN.
This is about surviving.
Gaza thought we had no honor but we are not the Jews of the Galut, subject to the mercy of the “civilized.” It is up to us to prove to the world that we will not allow ourselves to be destroyed. The sanctity of our daughters, mothers, sons, and fathers and the security of our home is in our hands.
This war must be won, no matter how many soldiers die or how many missiles smash into our homes. It’s the moral duty of the IDF to fulfill the promise of NEVER AGAIN.
For the Nation of Israel, in Israel and around the world.
If we do not, Israel will not survive. And no Jew on earth will be safe.
{Reposted from the author’s blog}
