The Ceasefire is a Perverse Farce: Israel Must Win This War Decisively, or Israel and the West are in Grave Danger

In the latest of a series of disgusting Hamas propaganda events presented in conjunction with the International Red Cross, Hamas transferred four caskets to Israel today. The caskets purportedly contained Ariel Bibas (who was four years old when terrorists murdered him in Gaza), his brother Kfir Bibas (who was 10 months old when terrorists murdered him in Gaza), the children's mother Shiri, and Oded Lifshitz (a grandfather who was 84 years old when terrorists murdered him in Gaza). It should be emphasized that forensic examinations proved that the Bibas children were murdered in captivity, and did not die in an airstrike, contrary to the propaganda that Hamas has spewed for over a year and that Hamas boldly put on the banner that they proudly displayed at today's propaganda event. Forensic investigators also determined that the body that was supposed to be Shiri is in fact not Shiri, and does not match the identifying characteristics of any of the hostages. 

Congratulations, President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu--you just traded terrorists to Hamas in exchange for a random dead body. President Trump keeps talking about "unleashing hell" on Hamas, but all that has been unleashed so far is humiliation on Israel for agreeing to this dangerous foolishness, and humiliation on the United States for brokering this deal.  

Congratulations, "Free Palestine" and "From the River to the Sea!" advocates--you are the proud supporters of child-killing terrorists who bring their own children to celebrate the deaths of Jewish children, and who pledge to kill more Jewish children in the future.

This flagrant (and ghoulish) violation of the ceasefire's terms should be met by an immediate, appropriate Israeli military response. This ceasefire is doomed to be a disaster for Israel (and the rest of the West), as were previous lopsided exchanges of murderers for hostages/dead bodies. 

In Israel Must Not Repeat the Mistake of Releasing Terrorists, I urged Israel to not agree to a ceasefire and to not release a single terrorist:

In the wake of Hamas's October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack, I explained the Islamic concepts of Dar al-Islam versus Dar al-Harb, and I defined what victory must look like for Israel: 

1) Hamas is eliminated as a functioning terrorist, military, and political entity.

2) Hamas' state sponsors--including but perhaps not limited to Iran and Qatar--must pay reparations for the killed, for the injured, and for the destruction of property.

3) All hostages held by Hamas must be released immediately and unconditionally.

Israel has fought Hamas--and Hezbollah, Iran, and the Houthis--for over a year and has failed to accomplish any of the above goals while losing over 800 soldiers in combat. It is not enough to kill a few top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and to kill or capture several thousand foot soldiers, because doing so did not eliminate Hamas as a functioning entity, did not punish Hamas' state sponsors, and did not secure the unconditional release of all hostages.

Israel has a pathetic history of turning not quite victory into total defeat. In 2011, Netanyahu signed off on a deal with Hamas, releasing over 1000 terrorists in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas. One of those released terrorists was Yahya Sinwar, the architect of Hamas's October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack during which Hamas killed more than 1200 people and took more than 250 hostages. One lesson that Sinwar learned while he was incarcerated in Israel is that Israel will pay almost any price in exchange for hostages, and that is a major reason that the October 7, 2023 attack included plans to take hostages.

While we mourn the Bibas children, Lifshitz, and all of the other murdered hostages, we should not forget the Simon Tov family and the many other men, women, and children who were massacred on October 7, 2023. Their blood cries out to us; we owe it to them, and to potential future victims of Islamist bloodlust, to win this war as decisively and quickly as possible.

I previously discussed how "postmodern" concepts have wrecked Israel's military, and I offered a battle plan for the future:

Israel should abandon postmodern military doctrines that have repeatedly failed to yield desired results, and embark on a better, bolder path:

1) Scrap all of the "precision-guided munitions" and revert to using good old-fashioned "dumb" bombs. Israel's enemies would then directly pay the heavy price of attacking Israel, and they would know that Jewish blood is no longer cheap.

2) Stop bragging about military successes (real and imagined). Move in silence. Don't let the enemy know what to expect, and don't tell the enemy afterward what you did or did not do.

The harsh reality is that Israel and the West will either defeat the Islamists, or the Islamists will force the world to submit to Islamic law. This war will not be ended by negotiations or concessions, and it certainly will not be ended by delusional postmodern military doctrines focused on "effects" and deterrence.

President Trump should be commended for supporting Israel's right to "unleash hell" in Gaza, but those words are meaningless as long as the United States sponsors ceasefires that enable Hamas to rearm. Further, President Trump must confront Qatar for its primary role supporting Islamist terrorism. Qatar is a major part of the problem, and most assuredly is not an honest broker for peace. 

Israel's survival and the United States' status as the leader of the Free World both depend on the total defeat of the Iran-Qatar-Hamas-Hezbollah alliance. It should be glaringly obvious that this war is not about land, and it certainly is not about helping Palestinian Arabs or creating a state for them. Egypt occupied Gaza from 1948-67 and did not even attempt to create a Palestinian Arab state there, and Jordan similarly controlled Judea and Samaria from 1948-67 without attempting to create a Palestinian Arab state there. Why should Israel be expected to be "more Arab" than the Arabs? The Arabs know that "Palestinian nationalism" is just an inversion of the historical truth that Jews are the indigenous people of the Land of Israel, and that is why they never tried to create a Palestinian Arab state.

Anyone who still supports a "Two State Solution" is delusional at best, and evil at worst. I have already described the history of the Land of Israel and the fact that there has never been a Palestinian Arab state:

Much has been said and written about the "Palestinian" nation and about "Palestinian " rights. I agree with anyone who fights for the basic human rights of every single human being, but I have some questions about Palestine as a nation. When did a sovereign country named "Palestine" exist? What was its capital, and what were its borders? What distinct, unique language was spoken there? Such questions arouse outrage and venom from some people, but I have yet to hear or see any answers--and there is a simple reason for that: it is a demonstrable historical fact that no such sovereign country ever existed. 

Palestine is a geographic term, much like the term Midwest is used to describe the portion of the United States that includes Ohio, Michigan, and a few other states. In the early 20th century, the geographic term Palestine was used to describe a territory including what is now known as Israel, Gaza, the so-called West Bank (the areas properly called by their historic names Judea and Samaria), and Jordan; after World War I, the League of Nations approved a Mandate granting control of Palestine to Great Britain with the express understanding that the territory would be a homeland for the Jewish people. Great Britain sliced off the eastern 80% of the Palestine Mandate to create Transjordan (which later became the independent Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan). After the demise of the League of Nations and after World War II, the United Nations proposed that the remaining 20% of the Palestine Mandate be divided into a Jewish state and a second Arab state (in addition to Jordan). The Jewish leadership in Palestine accepted the UN's proposal--but the Arab leadership in Palestine rejected the UN's proposal and joined forces with armies from the surrounding Arab nations in what they expected to be a war of annihilation against the nascent Jewish State--but Israel won the war, and ended up controlling less than 20% of the original Palestine Mandate, with most of the remaining territory under Jordanian control (Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip, which has never been historically part of Egypt).

Throughout history, the aftermath of a war includes the resettlement of refugees and the redrawing of borders. This situation is no different; the Arabs rejected the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan, and they have lost every war that they launched against Israel since that time. Israel gave the Sinai Peninsula to Israel as part of the Camp David Accords, gave up parts of Judea and Samaria in the Oslo Accords, and unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Israel not only withdrew militarily from Gaza, but she forcibly removed Jewish civilians who lived there and she even dug up Jewish bodies buried there. Israel left behind greenhouses and other infrastructure that the Arabs promptly and gleefully destroyed, because this is not about land and has never been about land; this is about hating Jews, killing Jews, and destroying the Jewish State.

Giving up land and setting free terrorists has not brought peace to the Mideast or security to Israel. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results. The only way to defeat Islamism is to actually defeat it: kill the terrorists, kill their leaders, and make it clear that starting a war has a permanent territorial cost. Israel should immediately annex Judea and Samaria, and the Arab population there that is not willing to peacefully accept Israeli citizenship should be resettled in any of the more than two dozen Arab/Muslim countries. Israel has every right to annex Gaza as well, but if Israel prefers that Gaza be administered by the United States--as President Trump proposed--that is fine, provided that the current Gazan population is resettled in Arab/Muslim countries, both for the benefit of that population and to ensure the safety of Israel from a populace that has repeatedly demonstrated its overt support for Hamas' genocidal aims: the Gazans can start over elsewhere, and Gaza can finally be built up in a way that the Arabs have been unwilling or unable to do.

As a postscript to today's gruesome spectacle in Gaza, three empty buses exploded in Tel Aviv, and bombs were found on two other buses. Had those bombs exploded as intended during morning rush hour, hundreds of people could have been killed. The source of that terrorist attack is most likely the very population in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza that must be resettled--a population that has proven that it is unwilling to live side by side with Israel in peace. Israel is not going anywhere and should not have to go anywhere; the people who are creating the problem need to go somewhere else. If the Arab/Muslim countries refuse to take in their brethren then (1) that confirms how dangerous these people are, and (2) the United States should take that into consideration when allocating aid and when providing the military support that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Arab/Muslim countries expect to receive. Israel resettled nearly 1,000,000 Jewish refugees from Arab/Muslim countries after 1947, and the time has come to complete that population exchange by resettling Arab/Muslim refugees in Arab/Muslim countries.

Today could be a momentous day: Hamas clearly violated the ceasefire, and terrorists attacked within the heart of Israel. Israel should not sit on her hands just because a mass casualty terrorist attack was averted, because next time Israel may not be so fortunate--and there will always be a next time until Israel wins this war as decisively and quickly as possible. 

We must all hope that Israel understands the gravity of the moment, and does what needs to be done to eliminate the Islamist threat to not just the Mideast but to Western civilization.

Trump Should Think Twice Before Claiming Credit for this Disastrous Deal

Soon to be U.S. President Donald Trump is taking credit for the reported Israel-Hamas deal that will apparently result in cessation of hostilities in Gaza for at least six weeks, the release of 33 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza (some of whom may be dead), and the release of hundreds--if not more than 1000--Arab terrorists, many of whom have blood on their hands and publicly stated murderous intentions in their minds. Trump portrays himself as the ultimate deal-maker, and he asserts that this deal is the first step toward bringing peace to the Mideast--but the reality, as I explained in Israel Must Not Repeat the Mistake of Releasing Terrorists, is that this deal is a painful, humiliating defeat in the life and death battle versus Islamist terrorists whose goal is to subjugate the non-Muslim world (which they refer to as Dar-al-harb): "If this deal takes place, it will be an unmitigated disaster not only for Israel and the Jewish people, but for the West, because this will represent a tremendous victory for Hamas specifically and Islamic terrorists in general; it will demonstrate that terrorism works, that Israel is weak, and that if you resist Israel long enough then Israel will surrender."

In Is this the best deal they could come up with?, Gary Willig wrote:

Hamas' leaders are dead. Its battalions are smashed. 20,000 of its fighters are dead, with thousands more injured or in prison. Its rocket arsenal has been reduced to a few hundred at most. Its ally Hezbollah is in shambles and unable to help it anymore. Its masters and sponsors in Tehran are reeling from losses throughout the region, the destruction of their air defenses, and an economic crisis that will make rebuilding from this war far more difficult for Hamas than previous conflicts. Hamas has 5 days until the deadline set by the next American President to release its hostages or there will be "all hell to pay."

With everything that is going against Hamas, this is the best deal Israel and the US could come up with?

David M. Weinberg details the disastrous and sordid history of Israel's lopsided hostages for terrorists exchanges in Terrorist releases in exchange for hostages threaten even more Israeli lives (emphasis in original):

Every deal involving the release of terrorists has led to more bloodshed, planned and carried out by these released terrorists.

There are no exact statistics on this (because unsurprisingly the security establishment refuses to release such statistics), though estimates range from 10% to 50% of released terrorists swiftly return to hard-core terrorist activity with devastating effects.

The 1,150 Palestinian Arab prisoners released by Israel in the 1985 so-called Jibril deal, in which three Israeli soldiers who had been taken hostage in Lebanon by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were released, proceeded to fuel the First Intifada, which ran from 1987 to 1993 and lead to the deaths and injuries of Israeli and other citizens. According to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, about 10% of the released Palestinian terrorists returned to active terrorist duty.

Then came the Oslo Accords, when Israel mistakenly allowed at least 60,000 Palestinian Arabs from "abroad" into the Palestinian Authority territories, including 7,000 card-carrying PLO terrorists. Between 1993 and 1999, Israel released additional Palestinian Arab terrorists as "gestures" to the PLO, which fueled the Second Intifada, from 2000 to 2005. These shocking figures were revealed in an Israel Defense and Security Forum report from last year.

In 2004, Israel released more than 400 Palestinian Arab prisoners and some 30 Lebanese prisoners, including leaders of Hezbollah, for one civilian captive—Elhanan Tannenbaum—and the bodies of three IDF soldiers. The Second Lebanon War against Hezbollah followed not long after.

The 2011 deal for Gilad Shalit was the worst; more than 1,000 terrorists were released in exchange for the 25-year-old IDF soldier, including Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Hamas-led attacks and atrocities on Oct. 7, 2023. In fact, almost the entire Hamas command structure involved in planning last year’s Simchat Torah assault on Israeli towns and cities, in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed on a single day, was made up of terrorists released in the Shalit deal.

Joe Biden's foreign policy consisted of one disastrous decision after another, including but not limited to his funding of the the PLO's "Pay for Slay" Jew-Killing program, but Donald Trump is not starting his second term well; his bragging about his role in the upcoming Israel-Hamas deal indicates that Trump pressured Israel into accepting unfavorable terms so that he could claim a foreign policy "success" that will turn out to be disastrous for Israel and the United States.

It will give me no pleasure to say "I told you so" when the terrorists released by Israel in this deal kill Israelis, Americans, and other innocent civilians. This deal will also inspire more terrorism in the United States along the lines of the recent attack in New Orleans, because terrorists will sense and exploit the weakness now being displayed by Israel and the United States.

Israel Must Not Repeat the Mistake of Releasing Terrorists

It has been reported that Israel is close to reaching a deal with Hamas stipulating that Israel will release hundreds of terrorists--including convicted killers--in exchange for 33 hostages. Allegedly, the price for each released female Israeli soldier will be 50 terrorists. If this deal takes place, it will be an unmitigated disaster not only for Israel and the Jewish people, but for the West, because this will represent a tremendous victory for Hamas specifically and Islamic terrorists in general; it will demonstrate that terrorism works, that Israel is weak, and that if you resist Israel long enough then Israel will surrender. Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich blasted the proposed deal as a "catastrophe for the national security of the State of Israel. We will not be part of a surrender deal that would include releasing arch-terrorists, ending the war, and erasing the achievements that cost us so much."

In the wake of Hamas's October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack, I explained the Islamic concepts of Dar al-Islam versus Dar al-Harb, and I defined what victory must look like for Israel: 

1) Hamas is eliminated as a functioning terrorist, military, and political entity.

2) Hamas' state sponsors--including but perhaps not limited to Iran and Qatar--must pay reparations for the killed, for the injured, and for the destruction of property.

3) All hostages held by Hamas must be released immediately and unconditionally.

Israel has fought Hamas--and Hezbollah, Iran, and the Houthis--for over a year and has failed to accomplish any of the above goals while losing over 800 soldiers in combat. It is not enough to kill a few top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and to kill or capture several thousand foot soldiers, because doing so did not eliminate Hamas as a functioning entity, did not punish Hamas' state sponsors, and did not secure the unconditional release of all hostages.

Israel has a pathetic history of turning not quite victory into total defeat. In 2011, Netanyahu signed off on a deal with Hamas, releasing over 1000 terrorists in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas. One of those released terrorists was Yahya Sinwar, the architect of Hamas's October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack during which Hamas killed more than 1200 people and took more than 250 hostages. One lesson that Sinwar learned while he was incarcerated in Israel is that Israel will pay almost any price in exchange for hostages, and that is a major reason that the October 7, 2023 attack included plans to take hostages. Sinwar terrorized Israel in three ways on that day (and ever since, even after Israel belatedly eliminated him): 

1) Hamas not only raped, tortured, and beheaded victims but Hamas livestreamed these horrors to inspire their followers and break Israel's spirit while proudly displaying the barbarism at the heart of radical Islam.

2) Hamas committed mass murder to devastate the Jewish people with a one day death toll not seen since the Holocaust.

3) Hamas took hostages to use as bargaining chips for the release of thousands of terrorists.

The title of Caroline Glick's column about the Shalit deal--"A Pact Signed in Jewish Blood"--says it all, and she wrote some prescient words about Israel's colossal blunder (emphasis added):

Untold numbers of Israelis who are now sitting in their succas and celebrating Jewish freedom, who are driving in their cars, who are standing on line at the bank, who are sitting in their nursery school classrooms painting pictures of Torah scrolls for Simhat Torah will be killed for being Jewish while in Israel because Netanyahu has made this deal. The unrelenting pain of their families, left to cope with their absence, will be unimaginable.

This is a simple fact and it is beyond dispute.

It is also beyond dispute that untold numbers of IDF soldiers and officers will be abducted and held hostage. Soldiers now training for war or scrubbing the floors of their barracks, or sitting at a pub with their friends on holiday leave will one day find themselves in a dungeon in Gaza or Sinai or Lebanon undergoing unspeakable mental and physical torture for years. Their families will suffer inhuman agony.

The only thing we don't know about these future victims is their names. But we know what will become of them as surely as we know that night follows day.

Netanyahu has proven once again that taking IDF soldiers hostage is a sure bet for our Palestinian neighbors. They can murder the next batch of Sinais and Gals, Noas and Ruths. They can kill thousands of them. And they can do so knowing all along that all they need to do to win immunity for their killers is kidnap a single IDF soldier.

There is no downside to this situation for those who believe all Jews should die.

In 2011, Glick predicted the hostage crisis that has taken place in Gaza since October 7, 2023, and it must be emphasized that the current proposed deal will ultimately not be about rescuing 33 hostages but rather about condemning hundreds--if not thousands--of people to be slaughtered. 

It is heart-rending to read the pleas to Netanyahu "Leave no hostage behind," because Netanyahu is compounding the insanity underlying previous lopsided deals by not even bringing every hostage home with this proposed deal. Minister Orit Strock (Religious Zionist Party) declared, "There are prices that should not be paid, certainly not before everything in the world changes, just before we can fight again without any restrictions. Just before the end of Biden's term, to come and make a deal whose exorbitant price suits a period that is almost over--it's not an achievement, it's an injustice and a lack of national responsibility. We need to cry out these things, we need to awaken these things. We need to talk about the hostages who, as it seems now, will be left behind. I call on all my friends in the government, do not ignore this price. Be brave enough to say no to this agreement."

There are still approximately 100 hostages (or bodies) being held by Hamas; what happens to the dozens who are not included in this deal? Netanyahu is betraying Israel and the Jewish people, and in one fell swoop he is poised to wipe out whatever hard-earned gains Israel made on the battlefield, because Hamas' leaders lounging in luxury in Qatar* do not care about the Hamas foot soldiers Israel killed in Gaza; those foot soldiers are just cannon fodder to Hamas, which also not only does not care about Arab civilian suffering but uses (and exaggerates) that suffering for propaganda purposes. 

Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack exposed Israel's strategic and tactical vulnerabilities, and this proposed exchange reveals Israel's political weakness: Israel consistently permits her enemies to fight limited liability wars in which her enemies never suffer significant, permanent consequences for their actions. Israel should make it clear that the response to terrorism and war waged against her will not only be total victory on the battlefield but also the enactment of permanent political and demographic changes--Israel should annex Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and Israel should complete the population exchange initiated in 1948 when the Arab and Islamic states expelled almost 1,000,000 Jews. We have seen for over 100 years--dating back to before the rebirth of the Jewish State in the Land of Israel--that a large number of Arabs and Muslims will never accept peaceful coexistence with the Jewish people, so we have passed the point where the obvious solution must be enacted: Jews (and any Arabs/Muslims who will live in peace with Jews) living in Israel, and Arabs/Muslims who are unwilling to peacefully coexist with Israel living in any one of their more than 20 Arab/Muslim sovereign states spread out from Morocco all the way to Pakistan (a legacy of Arab/Muslim colonization of Africa, the Mideast, and Asia).

No self-respecting nation suffering what Israel suffered at the hands of Hamas would leave Hamas intact in Gaza--or leave Gaza under Arab/Muslim control--in the wake not just of the October 7 atrocities but in the wake of 20 years of Hamas atrocities. Israel tried the experiment of letting the Arabs/Muslims rule in Gaza, and the result of that experiment proved that the experiment should never be repeated. Israel must control Gaza to be safe, and Hamas must lose Gaza as a consequence of losing a war that Hamas started.

Imagine if Israel had never given up the land that she captured in self-defense in 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982. The Arabs/Muslims would be much less inclined to attack Israel if they knew that losing the ensuing war would mean permanently losing land. That is the way that normal nations wage war. Israel has tried to live by a "purity of arms" concept that is neither acknowledged nor respected by the rest of the world that slanders Israel as a genocidal apartheid state--but it is better to be slandered while controlling land and having peace than to be slandered while losing land and having no peace.

The Islamic terrorists boast that they will defeat Israel (and then the West, mind you--never forget that) because "We love death more than you love life." The  foundational documents for Hamas and Hezbollah explicitly state their goal to destroy Israel; unless Israel comes to grips with the reality that this is a kill or be killed situation, Israel's survival is in deep peril. 

*--As I noted in a recent article, it is imperative that President Trump confront Qatar for sponsoring Islamic terrorism and no longer perpetuate the lie that Qatar is a helpful mediator.

Israel Must not Underestimate Hezbollah the Way that Israel Underestimated Hamas

Prior to Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack against Israel, the Israeli military/political "concept" was that Hamas was either incapable of such an attack or afraid of the consequences of launching such an attack; in either event, Israel need not worry about Hamas doing anything more than "minor" terrorist attacks that "only" killed or wounded a few people. Any sensible person reading those words immediately understands many reasons why such a "concept" is both flawed and dangerous, including (1) a nation should not accept as a matter of course that a terrorist group will regularly launch fatal attacks on her territory, and (2) it is reckless to assume that a terrorist group that speaks of launching a massive attack is not planning to launch a massive attack given the right conditions. Israeli hubris after the Six Day War paved the way for Israeli vulnerability at the start of the Yom Kippur War, and the "concept" about Hamas displayed similar hubris.

Israel is now at great risk of falling prey to such hubris yet again. Hezbollah (which can also be spelled Hizbullah) is, like Hamas, an Iranian-funded terrorist group with global reach and global aspirations; for Iran and the terrorist groups funded by Iran, fighting Israel is just one battle in a much larger war. The Islamist quest to not only destroy Israel but to kill Jews worldwide can only be understood in the context of the concepts of Dar al-Islam versus Dar al-harb:

The barbarism at the core of radical Islam will not be cured by any concession made by Israel short of complete dissolution of the Jewish State--and even if that tragic outcome happened, radical Islam would not be placated but would instead turn its full attention toward the United States and other democratic countries that are part of the Dar al-harb--the portions of the world that radical Muslims have yet to conquer, with the emphasis on "yet": they believe that such conquest is promised to them by Allah, and they will not rest until they achieve such conquest, transforming all of the world into Dar al-Islam (territory governed in strict accordance with Islamic law, which means--among other things--no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion, no freedom of the press, no independent judiciary, and very limited rights for women and any other minority group not favored under Islamic law). 

Israel has had some success in diminishing Hezbollah's capabilities in the past year or so, but Israel should not rest on her laurels or feel safe until the job of destroying Hezbollah is complete. It is no secret that for quite some time Hezbollah has been planning a massive invasion of Israel from the north that, if successful, would dwarf the scale of what Hamas did in southern Israel. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has done a tremendous job of compiling in great detail a massive amount of evidence regarding Hezbollah's goals and capabilities. Unmasking The Religious Dimensions Of Hizbullah's Decades Of Planning For An October 7-Style Invasion And Massacre Of Jews is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand the grave danger facing Israel. The opening sentences of the report are chilling to read:

Since the 2006 Israel-Hizbullah war, Hizbullah has been speaking openly, in Arabic and in explicit detail, of its plan to carry out a future massacre in Israel. Hizbullah's plan, two decades in the making, was to begin by invading the Galilee using missiles, rockets, and drones, along with advanced technology, intelligence, and surveillance, and with a tunnel network far more extensive than Hamas's. Yet Hamas's October 7 attack turned out to have preempted what Hizbullah had been planning – plans that were confirmed by documentation found by Israeli forces in their counteroffensive in southern Lebanon.

Self-proclaimed "progressives" and other "useful idiots" in the West and elsewhere falsely assert that they and their Islamist brothers in arms are anti-Zionists but not antisemites, and they falsely claim that Israel is an evil colonizer of Arab lands. The reality is that Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism, and Jews are the indigenous people of the Land of Israel. Further, there is a deep religious dimension to the war against Israel, as discussed in MEMRI's report:

In its communications, Hizbullah often refers to the seventh-century slaughter of the Jews in the Arabian Peninsula by the army of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, during the seventh-century Battle of Khaybar. In fact, Hizbullah considers all its current strikes against Israel to be part of its "Operation Khaybar" in revenge for the killing of Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. An October 1 post by the Hizbullah Al-Electroni account featured a 25-second video warning, in Hebrew and English: "The Khyber [i.e. Khaybar] Gate will be uprooted twice, and the field will testify that we are the people of decisiveness."

A video released in February 2023, further highlighting Hizbullah's framing of its current battle against Israel in religious terms, showed the elite Radwan Force simulating an invasion of northern Israel. The narrator quoted the Old Testament in Hebrew: "If there is a serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. Exodus, 21:24-25." The video concluded with a verse from the Book of Jeremiah: "From the north, disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land [Israel]. Jeremiah 1:14."

This theme, and this verse from Jeremiah, also appeared in an October 2020 video on Hizbullah's media outlet Al-Manar. In it, a Hizbullah official stressed that the next phase of the "resistance" would include two "blades" – Hizbullah missiles and legions of fighters who will storm the enemy's barracks and settlements – in an operation named "The Gates Of Khaybar Will Be Smashed Again."

It is notable that Hizbullah supporters in the West – in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and elsewhere – have revived the historic Muslim call to kill Jews in chants threatening local Jewish communities: "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return." This occurred at a September 29 vigil for Nasrallah in Dearborn, Michigan, where it was heard; the crowd chanted "Death to Israel" for good measure.

The slogans "Free Palestine!" and "Land for Peace!" are not calls for righteous action but rather calls for disarming and weakening Israel as a prelude to destroying Israel. Hezbollah makes no secret of its goal to destroy Israel, which means that the people chanting "Free Palestine!" and "Land for Peace!" either want Israel to be destroyed or are brainwashed and have no idea what they are talking about. 

MEMRI's report describes Hezbollah's detailed plans to destroy Israel: 

Days after the September 17-18 detonation of Hizbullah operatives' pagers and other communication devices across Lebanon, came Israel's elimination of the top tier of Hizbullah's leadership, including, on September 27, Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. He was killed deep in his bunker, as he and senior Hizbullah officials were reportedly finalizing their plans that would likely have gone into action for the Jewish New Year on October 2 or for the anniversary of October 7. In its Lebanon ground offensive, which began September 30, Israel has found in the tunnels – that North Korean experts are known to have helped construct – anti-helicopter missiles, anti-tank missiles, mortar shells, ammunition, weapons, and explosives, as well as motorcycles, for Hizbullah's "Conquer the Galilee" operation.

Hizbullah believed that its invasion would bring about Israel's destruction. In interviews, and in Arab media and social media posts, Hizbullah officials, including Nasrallah, his deputies, and senior commanders, detailed the organization's goals and aims.

According to these statements, as noted, Hizbullah's plan would begin with the Galilee. In 2019, Nasrallah explained: "Part of our plan, both theoretically and in practice... It is a plan for which we train, and prepare... We have prepared this plan. It is complete. Yes, part of our plan for the next war is to enter the Galilee."

In August 2023, two months before October 7, Hizbullah operations officer "Hajj Jihad" underlined that the plan for the Galilee operation had been in the works for over 15 years. Calling it "one of the most important plans prepared by the Islamic resistance," he added that when the war starts, "we will see Israeli soldiers deserting their posts, and fleeing." He underlined that "the Islamic resistance that will wage this war" will not conduct it "like we have done it in the past" because "in the 17 years since 2006, we have been diligently preparing for this war."

It should be noted that Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000--under the disastrous leadership of Prime Minister Ehud Barak--emboldened Hezbollah, and paved the way for Hezbollah to develop into a terrorist organization with global reach. Barak did not have the necessary wisdom or courage to properly secure Israel's northern border, so now Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must finish that most important task.

Two important points must be emphasized:

1) If Hezbollah launches a mass casualty terrorist attack against Israel, no one--including Israeli leaders--can dare say that there was no way to predict or know that this could happen. The information is readily available publicly, which means that Israeli military and political leaders no doubt have access to even more information. When Netanyahu set free more than 1000 terrorists in 2011, I criticized Netanyahu and every minister who supported the deal: "These 26 Israeli Cabinet Ministers have signed death warrants for countless innocent Jewish men, women and children--and when the Hamas murderers execute those death warrants Benjamin Netanyahu and these 26 Ministers should be held accountable for setting terrorists free." I did not know when Hamas would attack, but I knew that Netanyahu and the other ministers had set the stage for such an attack to happen.

2) The Israeli government has a legal and moral responsibility to destroy Hezbollah (and Hamas) in order to protect her civilians and her sovereignty; any Israeli politician who is unwilling to fulfill that duty should immediately resign from office. Over a decade ago, I warned about a defeatist mentality in Israel that could lead to Israel's destruction: "The Rabin-Peres-Netanyahu-Barak-Sharon-Olmert plan--surrender land to bloodthirsty enemies, set child killers free so that they can kill more innocent, defenseless children, force children to cower behind concrete desks as deadly rockets pummel schoolyards and become giddy when an anti-missile missile that costs $100,000 shoots down one of a nearly endless supply of cheap rockets--falls just a bit short of Churchill's standards."

I fervently do not want to be the prophet of Israel's destruction, but Israel's destruction is possible if Israel underestimates or ignores the threats posed by Iran, a weakened but not defeated Hamas, and a weakened but not defeated Hezbollah. I warned for many years about the threat posed by Hamas, and I was proven right. I have also warned repeatedly about the threat posed by Iran in general and Hezbollah in particular, and I hope that Israel has learned from her previous grievous mistakes and will act decisively to defeat her evil enemies. 

Pictures of Four Israeli Soldiers Killed in Gaza Bring Several Thoughts to Mind

Looking at the pictures of the four brave young men who just fell in battle in Gaza to defend Israel, I have many thoughts but three thoughts come to the forefront:

1) If Israel were truly trying to commit genocide then she would not put her soldiers at risk in building to building targeted combat but she would just bomb Gaza to oblivion. 

2) If Israel were truly an "apartheid state" as the modern blood libel insists, then pictures of her soldiers would not look like a United Colors of Benetton ad. The reality is that tiny Israel--just twice the size of L.A. County--is the only nation between Morocco and Pakistan that embraces ethnic diversity while having free elections, free speech, women's rights, and religious freedom. An Arab who publicly questions Israel's right to exist can run for election and serve in Israel's Knesset (Parliament); the equivalent opportunity does not exist in any other country in that region. 

The outside agitators and brainwashed fools who are rampaging across U.S. college campuses chanting hate speech against Jews and Israel probably could not find Gaza on a map, and they have no clue about the historical truth about Israel or Gaza; the propaganda they spout is not only false but it is not even internally consistent: I am waiting for them to decide if (1) Gaza was a thriving area until Israel bombed it or (2) Gaza was an "open air prison." Logically, both cannot be true, but once you decide to chant "From the River to the Sea..." you abandoned logic a long time ago.

3) By pressuring Israel to delay the Rafah operation and then refusing to deliver various weapons to Israel, the United States emboldened Hamas, gave Hamas time to prepare, and thus put Israeli lives at risk. A stronger Israeli leader than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would have either sent forces into Rafah weeks ago, or else made the determination that instead of endangering Israeli soldiers in close combat Israel must bomb into submission the entrenched Hamas forces.

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Esq. provided a brilliant analysis of the history of American diplomatic pressure leading to catastrophic results, and he concluded, "The United States can weather its bad policy choices; it is big country protected by two oceans. It rarely pays any price for its diplomatic follies. That price is paid by its erstwhile allies pressured into acting against their own interests." 

In order to survive, Israel must be brave and must act in her own self interest. When Menachem Begin was Prime Minister of Israel and Joe Biden was a U.S. Senator, Begin rebuked Biden by declaring, "Don't threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid." 

Unfortunately, Netanyahu must be an octopus, because it seems that he does not have two trembling knees but eight trembling knees that paralyze his ability to move decisively. He bears great responsibility for weakening Israel by repeatedly caving in to outside pressure for the past two decades, and if he wants to salvage what is left of his good name then he only has two choices: finish the job in Gaza and then resign, or resign now to make room for a true leader who will finish the job in Gaza.

Finishing the job means, at a minimum, the following:

1) Hamas is eliminated as a functioning terrorist, military, and political entity.

2) Hamas' state sponsors--including but perhaps not limited to Iran and Qatar--must pay reparations for the killed, for the injured, and for the destruction of property.

3) All hostages held by Hamas must be released immediately and unconditionally.

Just hours after Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack, I predicted the following:

The broad outline of events for the next few weeks is sadly predictable:

1) For the next 24-48 hours, America and many Western countries will express sympathy for Israel.

2) After 48 hours at most, attention will shift to Israel's allegedly "disproportionate" response, and both sides--but mostly Israel--will be urged to "act with restraint."

3) Most media outlets will present false narratives about alleged "legitimate Palestinian grievances" that supposedly justify Hamas' attacks. Few people will have the courage to publicly state the truth: 

There has never been a sovereign country called Palestine, nor is there a distinct Palestinian people. If you don't believe me, then consider the words of Zuheir Mohsen, who was a high-ranking PLO leader in the 1970s. In a March 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw, Mohsen declared:

The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.

The word Palestine has nothing to do with Arab or Islamic history, but it dates back to the Latin name that the Romans gave to Judea (the second Jewish Commonwealth) after conquering and subjugating the Jewish people (and the Latin name is derived from a Greek word). After destroying the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, the Romans renamed the city Aelia Capitolina, and they proudly printed coins bearing the words "Judea Capta." The Roman Empire was long ago consigned to history's dustbin, but the Jewish people are still here and the Jewish people have reestablished their historical state in their historical land. We know when the first Jewish Commonwealth was founded (roughly 3000 years ago), we know its approximate and fluctuating borders, we know that Jerusalem was its political capital and main religious center, we know when that state was conquered by the Babylonians (roughly 2500 years ago), we know when the Maccabees established a second Jewish Commonwealth (roughly 2200 years ago), we know when the second Jewish Commonwealth was conquered by the Roman Empire (roughly 2100 years ago), and we know when the final Jewish revolt against Rome was defeated (less than 2000 years ago). We know that the people in the first and second Jewish Commonwealths spoke Hebrew. 

In contrast, the notion of a distinct Palestinian Arab nation is quite recent, and has no historical basis. The PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) was founded in Cairo, Egypt in 1964, with funding and support provided by the Soviet Union. What exactly was the PLO founded to "liberate"? In 1964, Egypt controlled Gaza, while Jordan controlled Judea and Samaria plus the eastern portion of Jerusalem. If the PLO had been truly interested in creating a Palestinian national state in Gaza plus the West Bank then why was the PLO conducting terrorist attacks against Israel, a nation that had no control over the areas that the PLO supposedly wanted to "liberate"? Of course, the reality is that the Soviet Union helped create the PLO to destabilize Israel and thus increase the Soviet Union's influence and power in the region. This was all about oil and about expanding Communism's reach, and had nothing to do with helping "Palestinians" or creating a "Palestinian" nation. That is why the PLO and other Arab/Islamic terrorist groups are still waging war against Israel decades after Israel gave up control of Gaza and of portions of the so-called West Bank: the goal is not creating a "Palestinian" state but rather destroying the Jewish State. The PLO has not even attempted to create a functioning government in Gaza, because the PLO was not created to govern, does not know how to govern, and has no interest in governing. 

This is a tragedy not only for Israel, but also for the innocent Arabs who are not terrorists and who just want to live in peace; being placed under the control of the PLO was the worst thing that happened to those Arabs, but many media outlets would rather blame Israel than examine and explain historical truths.

Until the nations of the world, the U.N., and major media outlets speak truth to power about both Israel and about the Palestine myth, there will never be Mideast peace.

4) In three to six weeks, Israel will declare victory. That victory will result in some form of limited ceasefire or Israel ending major military operations--but Gaza will still be governed by Hamas, and large portions of Judea and Samaria will still be governed by the terrorist organization that calls itself the Palestinian Authority, even though there is no such country as Palestine and the only "authority" that this terrorist organization exercises is waging war against Israel.

It has taken a bit longer than I expected to reach stage four but--sadly--the broad outline of events that I predicted has unfolded as I expected, which is a tragedy not just for Israel and the Jewish people but for democracy and freedom in general. Victory for Hamas--and this is turning into a victory for Hamas--is defeat for anyone who values democracy, freedom, and human rights.

Menachem Begin Understood How to Respond to Calls for a "Two State Solution"

Proponents of the so-called "two state solution" overlook the fact that a two state solution was implemented in Palestine decades ago: Jordan was formed by slicing off nearly 80% of the Palestine Mandate's territory, controverting the League of Nations plan that Palestine would be the location of the reborn Jewish State after the Jewish people had suffered in exile for nearly two millennia. 

Menachem Begin, Israel's Prime Minister from 1977-83, understood that a "two state solution" is based on a lie that Palestine has not already been divided into two states, and is proposed as a means for destroying Israel. In 1981, when West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt stated that Germans have a moral obligation to facilitate the creation of another Palestinian state in addition to Jordan by carving territory out of Israel, Begin did not mince words:

From a moral point of view, Schmidt's statements certainly rank as the most callous ever heard. It seems that the Holocaust had conveniently slipped his memory and he did not make mention of a million and a half small children murdered, of entire families wiped out.

The German debt to the Jewish people can never end, not in this generation and not in any other. The entire nation cheered on the murderers as long as they were victorious. But what do we hear? We hear of a commitment to those who strove to complete what the Germans had started in Europe.

Begin declared that Schmidt "must have concluded some very lucrative business deals with Saudi Arabia."

Begin's conclusion about Schmidt's motivations is the same conclusion that I have reached about both President Trump and President Biden. President Trump's so-called "Deal of the Century" envisions a two state solution and thus puts Israel's survival at risk. President Biden's funding of the PLO's "Pay for Slay" program compensates terrorists for murdering Jews, and President Biden's impotent response to Iran's nuclear program and sponsorship of terrorism has emboldened the Iranians to attack U.S. and Israeli targets in the Mideast. I believe that President Trump, President Biden, and many other leaders are well compensated for their advocacy of the "two state solution" and other policies that clearly do not represent the best interests of the United States (or anyone else other than Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others who stand to make money from brokering such deals).

President Biden is not as overtly hostile to Israel as his predecessors Barack Obama or Jimmy Carter, but Biden--like most U.S. Presidents--has an agenda that is at best indifferent to Israel's survival, and Begin understood this when he confronted then-Senator Biden in 1982 regarding the possibility of U.S. aid to Israel being reduced if Israel dared to allow Jewish people to live in Judea and Samaria (often erroneously called "The West Bank," a name which makes no sense geographically or politically, as the territory in question is part of the Palestine Mandate and does not constitute the entire western bank of the Jordan River):

Don't threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.

The notion that any place in the world should be "Judenrein"--let alone places within the Land of Israel such as Judea and Samaria--is despicable. Even if yet another Arab state is carved out of the territory of the former Palestine Mandate, why wouldn't Jews be allowed to live there? For that matter, why are Jews not welcome to live in Gaza, and in many Arab/Muslim countries? 

Instead of blaming Israel for problems that Israel did not cause and cannot unilaterally solve, it should be noted that Jews are not welcome throughout most of the Arab/Muslim world: after Israel's rebirth in 1948, more than 800,000 Jews were expelled (or fled to avoid being killed) from Arab/Muslim countries. It also should be noted that the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan--accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by Arab leaders--further divided what little remained of the Palestine Mandate. What should have happened in 1948 is a population exchange, which is what typically happens after a war: the expelled Jews should have found homes in Israel (which most of them did, though some went to other countries), and the Arabs living in the western 20% of Palestine that became Israel should have either accepted Israeli citizenship (which many did) or else moved to Jordan or other countries to become full citizens. The world's cynical manufacturing, manipulation, and perpetuation of a "Palestinian refugee crisis"--including but not limited to the creation of a corrupt UN agency (UNRWA) separate from the UN agency that deals with every other refugee crisis around the world--has resulted in much misery for both Arabs and Jews.

The reality is that a two state solution has already been implemented, and it has failed because (1) creating two states in Palestine has not brought peace, (2) the "Palestinian refugees" have not been resettled in Jordan (or any other Arab country), and (3) Jordan is a non-democratic state that is barely functional. It does not make sense to assert that carving a third state out of the Palestine Mandate's territory would lead to peace, or solve the "Palestinian refugee crisis" (which should have been solved decades ago, and could be solved tomorrow if Arab nations were willing to take care of their brethren instead of exploiting them for public relations purposes). It is delusional to think that carving a third state out of the Palestine Mandate's territory would even result in the creation of a stable, functioning nation: the Gazans spent the past two decades using billions of dollars of foreign aid to build a terrorist stronghold, not a functioning state. It cannot be said that Hamas does not represent ordinary Gazans when the evidence shows otherwise: Gazans voted Hamas into power, polls have repeatedly shown that most Gazans support Hamas, and Gazan civilians were active, enthusiastic participants in Hamas's October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack (and UNRWA personnel actively collaborated with Hamas before, during, and after the attack).

For several decades, outside forces have coerced Israel into failing to achieve decisive victory each time she has been attacked by her Arab/Muslim neighbors, but Israel must not permit that to happen now. Israel's war against Hamas must continue until all of these events happen:

1) Hamas is eliminated as a functioning terrorist, military, and political entity.

2) Hamas' state sponsors--including but perhaps not limited to Iran and Qatar--must pay reparations for the killed, for the injured, and for the destruction of property.

3) All hostages held by Hamas must be released immediately and unconditionally.

Israel is under no legal or moral obligation to waste more money funding terrorist organizations in Gaza. Hamas attempted to use Gaza as a launching pad to destroy Israel, Hamas failed, and now Hamas and the Gazans who voted Hamas into power will have to live with the consequences of their bad choices and their military defeat. Name one other terrorist entity in world history that launched a failed war of extermination (Hamas' stated goal regarding Israel) and then was rewarded by being granted statehood in the very territory from which it launched the failed war of extermination? That is not how the world works.

"Two state solution" is just the polite way of saying "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." As I noted in the immediate aftermath of Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack against Israel, "When Israel's Arab neighbors and their self-proclaimed 'progressive' supporters chant 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' those words must be understood for their literal meaning and intention: every Jew from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is to be killed, Israel is to be destroyed, and yet another authoritarian Arab/Muslim state is to be established. The Arabs don't want 'land for peace'; they want to kill Jews and take control of all of the land from the 'river to the sea.' They mean exactly what they say. This is a sad and scary reality, but denying that reality will not change it. Israel's policies--and America's policies--must be grounded in reality and must be directed toward making sure that 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' is a slogan consigned to history's dustbin."

The Arabs/Muslims control most of the territory spanning from Morocco to Pakistan, and they will have to be satisfied with not controlling an area barely twice the size of Los Angeles County that is the historic homeland of the Jewish people. What many Arabs/Muslims and others fail to understand is that the Jewish people did not colonize the Land of Israel. The Romans, Turks, British, and others were the colonizers. The Jewish people returned home, and triumphed over the colonizers. The Jewish people have as much right as any other nation to live peacefully in their homeland.

October 7, 2023 is a defining historical moment. Anyone who still advocates for the "two state solution" after October 7 is either clueless, paid off, or trying to destroy Israel. Zionism is a just cause and a successful movement, regardless of the slanders and lies promulgated about the Jewish people. There is fear and shame at the heart of antisemitism and anti-Zionism because of how much the Jewish people have accomplished in Israel: triumphing over the British colonists and sending them packing back home, repeatedly defeating Arab aggressors despite being vastly outnumbered, and building a thriving democracy with a modern economy.

Israel is a role model for what post-colonialist nations can accomplish with hard work and the right mindset; her enemies provide examples of the depravity to which humanity can sink with an entitlement mentality and an ideology based on "loving death more than you love life," which is the opposite of the Jewish worldview.

The Sun Rises in the East, Clouds Bring Rain, Released Terrorists Resume Terrorist Activity, and "Useful Idiots" Make Idiotic Statements

Some predictions do not require prophetic powers. The sun will rise in the east every morning. Clouds will bring rain. Terrorists who are set free will resume terrorist activity. "Useful idiots" will make idiotic statements.

One of the terrorists just released by Israel declared, "Our message to the settlers, we are waiting for you in all the cities of the West Bank. From Hebron to Jenin, we will slaughter you, and you will say that what Hitler did to you is a joke."

If Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is praised today for saving hostages, then will he be held accountable when the terrorists released on his watch slaughter innocent civilians and make what Hitler did look like a "joke"? In 2011, Netanyahu released over 1000 terrorists, one of whom--Yahya Sinwar--is the leader who planned Hamas' October 7 mass casualty terrorist attack.

Israel under Netanyahu's rule underestimated Hamas' capabilities prior to Hamas killing the most Jews who had been killed in a single day since the Holocaust, and Israel under Netanyahu's rule is blind to the damage, destruction, and death that will be the inevitable result of the ceasefire foolishness. Many media members criticize Netanyahu for allegedly being a right-wing extremist, but the reality is that he has repeatedly betrayed the right-wing (but not extreme) values of the people who elected him, and he has betrayed the entire nation of Israel by enacting policies that needlessly and recklessly put Jewish lives at risk.

No war has ever been won via ceasefires. Did the Allies pause World War II for ceasefires? No, and in fact the Allies insisted on unconditional surrender, punctuating that insistence by dropping not one but two atomic bombs on Japanese cities before Japan surrendered. We are told that Israel's war in Gaza is breeding another generation of terrorists. Did dropping two atomic bombs on Japan lead to another Pearl Harbor attack by Japan, or did it convince Japan that waging war against the U.S. is not only futile but very costly? The only chance for Israel to live in peace in a dangerous and dysfunctional neighborhood is to convince her Arab/Muslim neighbors that waging war against Israel is not only futile but very costly. Ceasefires, releasing terrorists, and making territorial concessions--Israel's failed policies from the past 30 years--have not convinced Arabs/Muslims to stop waging war against Israel.

Sadly, it is also predictable that self-proclaimed "progressives" will reflexively praise Hamas and attack Israel, including many U.S. city councils that preside over dysfunctional cities but somehow find the time (and chutzpah) to dictate policy to Israel. The Soviet Union considered their U.S. supporters in the early part of the 20th century to be "useful idiots," and we see the grandchildren of those "useful idiots" spouting idiotic slogans today.

The vocal supporters of Hamas are the same people who want to silence any speech that they disagree with, defund the police, decriminalize crime, and enact a sweeping "progressive" agenda that will destroy America as we know it: intellectually deficient and morally bankrupt people and organizations such as Rashida Tlaib and the rest of the self-proclaimed "Squad," Ibram Kendi, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Black Lives Matter, the United Nations (which provides aid and comfort to the worst totalitarian regimes while at the same time regularly denouncing Israel), and a long list delusional Jews (such as Noam Chomsky) who think that they can assimilate their way into acceptance, a delusion that proved to be of no avail to secular Jews in Nazi Germany and socialist Jews in the Soviet Union. If the gleeful support of self-proclaimed "progressives" for Hamas' rapists, baby killers, and mass murderers does not cure leftist Jews of their delusions about "progressive" causes, then nothing will.

Self-proclaimed "progressives" also support Critical Race Theory because CRT involves eliminating objective truth and objective standards of excellence in favor of equity (which, of course, the CRT supporters alone would be empowered to define). We have seen this movie in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba, and elsewhere, and it never ends well. The enthusiastic support for Hamas by self-proclaimed "progressives" reveals the true face of the "progressive" movement, and it is a face supporting the violent overthrow of Western civilization; that is why so many "progressives" refuse to condemn Hamas at all, because from their perspective "victims" can do no wrong and "victimizers" can do no right, and they have decided that Hamas represents "victims."

If this is confusing to you, then read Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, and Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon. The notion of violently overthrowing the government to supposedly help the oppressed by creating a "progressive" regime is not new; it has been tried many times before, and it consistently results in the creation of a totalitarian government that commits mass murder while stifling any dissent.

Benjamin Netanyahu's Most Important Task

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's place in history will be determined mainly by one thing: whether or not he prevents Iran from using a nuclear weapon to cripple or destroy the Jewish State. A national government has many responsibilities but the foremost responsibility is to preserve the safety of its citizens, for otherwise the national government has no reason to exist (and, upon failing to keep that responsibility, the national government would cease to exist). For her entire existence, Israel has been besieged by enemies who have sworn to destroy her. Many Israeli Prime Ministers have had to make fateful decisions in moments of crisis. In 1981, Menachem Begin took the bold step of disabling Iraq's nuclear program; Begin had survived the Holocaust and he correctly recognized that his most important duty was to make sure that nothing like the Holocaust ever happened again. Israel's preemptive strike against the Osirak facility was roundly condemned at the time but greatly appreciated a decade later during the first Gulf War.

Netanyahu is no Begin and it is not at all clear that he is up to the task of doing whatever is necessary to ensure Israel's survival. Netanyahu already has plenty of Jewish blood on his hands from his first term as Prime Minister, including 10 month old Shalhevet Pass, who was shot and killed on March 26, 2001 by a PLO sniper operating from the very Hebron hills that Netanyahu foolishly surrendered to PLO enemies who have sworn to kill Jews and destroy the Jewish State.

Forget that the land that Netanyahu gave away is part of the ancient Jewish State. Forget even that the land is part of the Palestine Mandate that was supposed to be part of the modern Jewish State but was instead partitioned by the British and then illegally annexed by Jordan during Israel's War of Independence. Simply remember that the land was used by Jordan in a war of aggression against Israel in the Six Day War in 1967. Israel is under no legal or moral obligation to cede control of that territory to anyone, let alone a terrorist group founded three years before the Six Day War with a charter focused not on "liberating" Palestine but rather on destroying Israel (yes, the territories the PLO purportedly seeks to "liberate" were not controlled by Israel when the PLO was formed).

Thus, the cowardly precedent that Netanyahu set during his first term as Prime Minister hardly inspires confidence that he will stand up to Iran's military and negative public opinion from various quarters in order to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons, which is all but inevitable in the wake of the proposed agreement between the United States and Iran.

Caroline Glick optimistically believes that President Obama's disastrous deal with Iran could yet turn into a glorious defeat for Israel:

Last week's publication of audio recordings of former defense minister Ehud Barak discussing of Iran's nuclear program revealed that for the past several years, Israel's military and intelligence brass have blocked operations against Iran's nuclear installations three times. In 2010, 2011 and 2012 the IDF chief of General Staff and senior generals supported by hesitant cabinet members refused to carry out instructions they received from Netanyahu and Barak to prepare to carry out such a strike.

There is no doubt that one of the main reasons they opposed lawful instructions was their faith in Obama's security pledges...

Had Netanyahu kept his criticism of Obama's decision to give Iran a free hand to develop nuclear weapons quiet, the generals might have shrugged their shoulders and expressed gratitude for the shiny new weapons Obama will throw at them to "compensate" for giving nukes to a regime sworn to annihilate the country.

By making his opposition public, Netanyahu alerted the nation to the dangers. The top commanders can no longer pretend that US security guarantees are credible. Now they will be forced to kick their psychological addiction to worthless American security guarantees, accept reality and act accordingly.

Better eight years late than never.

The Americans weren't the only ones paying attention to Israel's fight. Israel's Arab neighbors also saw how Netanyahu and Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer left no stone unturned in their efforts to convince Democratic lawmakers to oppose it. And the regional implications are already becoming clear.

As the Saudis' willingness to stand with Israel in public to oppose this deal has shown, our neighbors have been deeply impressed by the diplomatic courage Israel has shown. If and when Israel strikes Iran's nuclear installations, our willingness to openly oppose the administration will weigh in our favor. It will impact our neighbors' willingness to cooperate in action aimed at removing Iran's nuclear sword from their necks and ours...

Obama's success will backfire first and foremost because thanks to Netanyahu's move to spearhead the public debate in the US, today two-thirds of Americans oppose the deal. Since Iran will waste no time proving just how devastating a mistake Obama and his fellow Democrats have just made, Obama's success makes him far less free to enact further steps against Israel than he was before the deal was concluded. The public no longer will give him the benefit of the doubt.

Moreover, since the deal is as bad as its opponents say it is, and given that most Americans oppose it, Obama's successor will face no impediments in canceling the deal and adopting a new policy towards Israel and Iran.

Hopefully Glick's analysis will be proven correct but it is disconcerting and alarming that on three occasions Netanyahu gave orders to destroy Iran's nuclear program only to see those orders disregarded. Since when do the inmates run the asylum? If that report is true, those generals should have been fired and put on trial for treason. Generals enact policy but they do not create it. What those generals did is the equivalent of a coup d'etat and, contrary to Glick's take on the situation, this suggests that Netanyahu talks a good game but lacks the power to put his ideology into action in a meaningful way. What kind of leader is disobeyed three times by his generals and takes no action?

Netanyahu is deluded if he is counting on meaningful help from the Saudis or any other Arab country. The Saudis may privately cheer if Israel destroys Iran's nuclear program but the Saudis will not help Israel to do so and the Saudis will publicly condemn Israel's "aggression" if Israel uses military force against any Arab or Muslim country, even if that country is an enemy of the Saudis.

Let no one misunderstand what is at stake here. Just like Adolf Hitler announced his program of genocide against the Jewish people very clearly in Mein Kampf, it is documented well past the point that any reasonable person could doubt that the destruction of Israel is a central policy goal of Iran:

The 1948 Genocide Convention lists incitement to commit genocide as a war crime. Much of the Iranian language regarding Israel can certainly be legally defined this way.

A common motif of incitement to genocide is the dehumanization of the target population. The Nazi weekly Der Stürmer portrayed Jews as parasites and locusts. In the early 1990s in Rwanda, Hutu propaganda described the Tutsis as "cockroaches." Before Saddam Hussein's operations against the Iraqi Shia population in 1991, his Baath Party newspaper characterized them as "monkey-faced people." Similarly, former President Ahmadinejad has called Israeli Jews "cattle," "blood-thirsty barbarians," and "criminals," while Iranian state-owned websites have explained why the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of its population would be justified. Dehumanization has also appeared in other forms, such as demonization, in which the target population is labeled "Satanic"--a theme repeatedly used by Iranian leaders to describe Israel.

In fact, according to Prof. Gregory Gordon, who served as a legal officer for the first post-Nuremberg prosecutions for incitement to genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Iranian calls for Israel to be wiped off the map are "even more direct than much of the language from the Rwandan cases."

The following summary of Iranian leaders' anti-Israel statements from 2013 demonstrates the consistency of the regime's rhetoric, the clarity of its intentions, and the certainty of its beliefs. On top of all this, the statements serve as a reminder of the nature of a regime that is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability.

It is worth reading that article in its entirety to see all of the quotes--in English translation and in the original Persian--but here is a typical one from the Iranian Ministry of Defense: "If once the destruction and demise of occupying Israel was an impossible and unobtainable dream, today thanks to the historic and intelligent actions of Imam Khomeini, it has become possible and is actually in the process of occurring."

Iran intends to build nuclear weapons and it intends to use those weapons to destroy Israel, even at the cost of Muslim lives. Netanyahu's failure to protect Jewish babies from being intentionally targeted by Arab snipers is tragic but pales in comparison to what will happen if he is disobeyed by his generals for a fourth time. Nearly 40 years ago, Netanyahu's brother Yoni lost his life while leading a mission to rescue Jews from a hijacked airplane thousands of miles from Israel. Back then, Israel understood her duty and her responsibility and acted with energy and courage. Now, with the stakes infinitely higher, Netanyahu must not fail.

Those who think that these words are hyperbolic or should only be of concern to Jews ought to recall the path that Hitler took. Hitler signed treaties with England and with Russia when it suited him and then he broke those treaties when it suited him. He initiated genocide against the Jewish people while the world reacted with indifference, at best--but Hitler's ultimate goal was not just to destroy the Jewish people but to conquer the world. Similarly, Iran's plan involves not just the destruction of Israel but a world-wide jihad. Iran's words and deeds should be taken seriously not just by Israel but by the entire world.

Struma's Fate Provides Chilling Reminder of What is at Stake for Israel

The sinking of the Struma is a vivid, terrifying reminder of the atrocities committed against the Jewish people when they did not have a national homeland and a powerful indicator of what could happen to the Jewish people if Iran succeeds in destroying Israel, the national homeland reestablished by the Jewish people in 1948.

Sarah Honig's February 23, 2012 Jerusalem Post article about the Struma's demise is almost unbearably sad. Here are some heart-wrenching excerpts:

...Against the enormity of the then-unfolding Holocaust, the loss at sea of 768 Jewish lives (103 of them babies and children) was at most blithely overlooked as a marginal annotation.

Moreover, although these Jews fled the Nazis, in the pedantic literal sense they weren't executed by Third Reich henchmen.

This atrocity was the coldblooded handiwork of Great Britain (committed while it combated the Germans but remarkably without compassion for their Jewish victims), supposedly neutral Turkey (whose so-called nonalignment didn't extend to outcast Jewish refugees), by the Arabs (who were openly and unreservedly Nazism's avid collaborators and who pressured London into denying endangered Jews asylum in the Jewish homeland) and, finally, by the Russians (who targeted the immobilized sardine can that carried Jews to whom nobody would allow a toehold on terra firma).

The entire world seemed united in signaling Jews how utterly unwanted they were anywhere.

Such apathy-cum-enmity hasn't disappeared.

Only its form and context had mutated but the essence is still ultra-relevant to the Jewish state.

We're still threatened with annihilation. Nonetheless, unmistakable harangues from Tehran notwithstanding, the international community worries about an Israeli preemptive strike--not a genocidal strike against Israel.

The Struma was a barely seaworthy ship packed with Jewish refugees who escaped Nazi-occupied lands only to discover that they were unwelcome anywhere, a situation that emboldened the Nazis to accelerate their plan to kill every Jews on the face of the Earth: if the Jews were considered undesirable by every country in the world, then why should the Nazis think twice about annihilating them? Honig describes how this tragedy unfolded in front of the uncaring eyes of the entire world:

The Struma wasn't struck suddenly. It was slowly tortured, accentuating with demonic deliberation how disposable Jews were, just when genocide's monstrous machinery was switched into high gear. This 75-day shipboard melodrama underscored the total helplessness and humiliation of Jews without power.

Struma passengers gathered in the Romanian port of Constanza on December 8, 1941. For four days, Romanian customs officials "examined" their belongings. In fact, they pilfered all they saw--clothing, underwear, jewelry and most important, food. 

The Struma was eventually destroyed by a torpedo blast from a Soviet submarine; everyone onboard perished except for 19 year old David Stoliar, who--in Honig's words--"was imprisoned by the Turks for six weeks for the crime of not drowning."

Honig concludes:

Oblivion is perhaps the greatest sin against the Struma but also against ourselves. If we forget the Struma, we forget why this country exists, why we struggle for its survival. We forget the justice of our cause.

Dimmed memory and self-destructive perverse morality hinder our ability to protect ourselves from the offspring and torchbearers of the very Arabs who doomed the Struma. They haven't amended their hostile agenda. We just don't care to be reminded.

The state the Jews created is threatened with destruction and its population with obliteration.

Yet there's negligible sympathy for Israel and even less practical support to avert tragedy. The Struma's story is seminal in understanding why the Holocaust was possible and why a second Holocaust cannot be ruled out. More than anything, the Struma powerfully illustrates what happens when Jews rely on others' goodwill.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be well advised to read Honig's article, draw the proper conclusions and act accordingly before Iran uses nuclear weapons to destroy the Jewish State. Netanyahu can be remembered by history as the man who saved Israel or as the man who presided over Israel's destruction.

Ariel Sharon's Legacy is Tainted by his Abandonment of Fundamental Historical and Legal Principles

Ariel Sharon, who passed away on January 11, 2014 after spending eight years in a coma, was a bold and imaginative military leader who played an essential role in Israel's victories in the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. During most of his subsequent political career, Sharon strongly supported Israel's right--and need--to maintain control over Judea, Samaria and Gaza, three areas that not only are part of Biblical Israel (and the modern Palestine Mandate) but also essential buffer zones against aggression by Israel's Arab neighbors. Sharon was considered, by allies and enemies alike, as one of the founding fathers of the settler movement; he made his name as a proud advocate of the right of the Jewish people to return to their historic homeland in its entirety and his legacy is largely based on his ideology regarding Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Sharon permanently tarnished that legacy when, as Prime Minister, he betrayed the principles he had spent a lifetime upholding.

Prior to becoming Prime Minister, Sharon understood that language is important and he consistently said that Israel had "liberated" Judea, Samaria and Gaza, even though many people incorrectly insist on calling those territories "occupied." According to international law, Judea, Samaria and Gaza are unallocated portions of the Palestine Mandate. Those who refer to Israel as an "illegal occupier" are misinterpreting and/or misunderstanding international law.

Israel has a strong claim to Judea, Samaria and Gaza based on a host of international legal documents, including the Palestine Mandate and the Balfour Declaration, but even if one disregards those historical/legal precedents it is important to remember that Jordan and Egypt used Judea/Samaria and Gaza respectively as staging grounds for wars of aggression against Israel (and, prior to those wars, those countries used those territories as staging grounds for terrorist attacks against Israel).

Israel's policies of appeasement--and the attitude of large segments of the international political and media communities--make no sense, because instead of Israel begging that the Arab countries recognize her right to exist (a right that every other country in the world correctly takes for granted) in exchange for receiving land that had been used as staging grounds for anti-Israel aggression Israel should have been asking for reparations as the victim of unprovoked attacks. If Canada attacked the northern United States and the United States responded by capturing Quebec one can rest assured that the United States would not return Quebec in exchange for Canadian recognition of the United States' right to exist--and even that analogy does not go far enough, because in that scenario the United States' only claim to Quebec would be that Quebec had been used as a staging ground for an aggressive war, while in contrast Israel's valid claim to Judea, Samaria and Gaza predates the repeated Arab attempts to annihilate the Jewish State.

If international law is interpreted any other way then that would mean that Country A could attack Country B, lose land during the subsequent war and then insist that Country B either return that land or offer reparations. Furthermore, Jordan--which occupied Judea and Samaria from 1948 and 1967--was never recognized internationally as the rightful owner of those areas and Egypt's claim to Gaza is dubious as well. The "illegal occupier" of Judea and Samaria was Jordan, not Israel! In 1970, three years after the Six Day War, former State Department Legal Advisor Stephen Schwebel explained the legal status of Judea and Samaria: "Where the prior holder of territory had seized that territory unlawfully, the state which subsequently takes that territory in the lawful exercise of self-defense has, against that prior holder, better title."

Israel's intimate ties to Judea, Samaria and Gaza are not just legal formalities; the rich Jewish history associated with Judea, Samaria and Gaza predates the creation of both Christianity and Islam. It is also worth mentioning that not only has there never been an Arab country called "Palestine" but that the p sound does not even exist in Arabic; the word Palestine has been co-opted and corrupted in recent decades by Israel's enemies but it originated as a Latin term used by the Roman occupiers to rename Judea, the ancient Jewish state that had provided particularly tough resistance to Roman conquest. The Arabic word Filastin is simply a transliteration of the Latin term and the assertion that there is a distinctive Palestinian Arab people separate from the larger Arab community is a late 20th century propaganda phenomenon--arguably the most successful propaganda campaign ever, completely turning historical truth upside down (the Jerusalem Post was originally called the Palestine Post but just a few decades later Israel's enemies have convinced most of the world that there is such a thing as a separate Palestinian Arab nation, which historically makes about as much sense as saying that there is a separate Michigan nation that is entitled to exist independently of the United States).

Sharon's military achievements and his bold advocacy for Israel's rights made him a hero in the eyes of Israrel's supporters and a villain in the eyes of Israel's enemies--but after Sharon became Israel's Prime Minister in 2001 he made a shocking and abrupt ideological transformation, unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza and four communities in Samaria and making plans for more unilateral withdrawals from Judea and Samaria; if he had not been incapacitated by a stroke in 2006 there is no telling how much more damage Sharon might have done to Israel's security and how many thousands of Jewish residents he may have uprooted from their homes. It is a bitter historical irony that Sharon, the general who helped save Israel from defeat in several wars, became a Prime Minister who inflicted ethnic cleansing on his own people, forcibly removing Jewish families from their homes.

Yitzhak Shamir was a man of principle, in stark contrast to Israeli Prime Ministers Shimon Peres, Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu. Ariel Sharon will always be a seminal figure in Israeli and Jewish history but his ultimate legacy is that he betrayed his most cherished principles and he betrayed the voters who elected him because they believed that he would uphold those very principles.