By Jan Willem van der Hoeven
I am shocked that after the initial, brilliantly-conducted military operations in Gaza Israel – under the leadership of Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert – is about to lose most of what it set out to accomplish.
It appears now that there will be NO freeing of Gilad Shalit as an Israeli PRECONDITION for any cease fire, and no forcing out of power in Gaza of the evil-minded political Hamas leadership. There is only to be the constant bragging by various Israeli spokesmen as to “how we have delivered Hamas a very painful blow” that will teach them not to attack us again soon.
How foolish!
If I were Hamas, I would wait quietly for a year or two until Iran has acquired its nuclear weapons, so that the mullah’s can supply me, not just with Grad missiles, but with a few suitcases with dirty bombs for mass destruction.
Hamas will not make the same mistake next time; it will have the means to cause far greater destruction in Israel.
Thus is Israel now – after all the courageous fighting of its soldiers – about to do for Hamas as Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni did for the Hezbollah after the Second Lebanese War: this time letting Hamas off the hook so that it too can only come back stronger, better-armed, and more determined than ever!
As has been said: “Am naval ve lo chacham.”
What Israel should now say IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS to all those involved in the current calls for an immediate ceasefire – to the Europeans, the Americans and the Egyptians – is this:
THERE WILL BE NO CEASEFIRE without the freeing of Gilad Shalit, the surrender of Hamas’ political leadership, and the reoccupation of the Philadelphi Route along the border with Egypt to ensure there can be no further rearmament of what will be left of the Hamas infrastructure.
© Israel My Beloved
