As the week began, Israel had its hands full dealing with Hamas and the criminals on its payroll. Kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit remained in captivity, Kassam rockets kept falling on Israeli soil, and the army’s Gaza incursion grew more extensive every day.
Now, with Hezbollah’s brazen July 12 attack on Israel’s northern border, during which several Israeli soldiers died and two were kidnapped, the political and military calculus has changed dramatically. Israel is on a war footing, and events may spiral out of control.
Are Hamas and Hezbollah now working in concert? Is this new Palestinian/Lebanese aggression a direct result of Israel’s Gaza disengagement (something voices on the right vociferously contend)? Is this the start of a regional war, or will this latest violence dissipate?
We do not know the answers to those questions. It is much too early for us or anyone to interpret events accurately.
But there are a few things we do know. For one, those that say Israel is the aggressor, that Israel seeks conflict, are dead wrong. All of it started with the Palestinians’ relentless Kassam rocket barrage — a thousand points of death — that rained down on Israel over the last few months. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority could have built a civil society in Gaza, but instead they chose to further scorch their already scorched earth.
We also know this: Israel, like any nation, has a right to defend itself against rocket attacks, cross-border kidnappings and tunnels of terrorism, and to pursue the killers wherever they may hide. If that means rolling back into Gaza with tanks, so be it. Some may disagree with certain tactics, but until one has had a Kassam rocket land in his or her own backyard, we suggest giving Israel the benefit of the doubt.
And this, too, we know: The world, while winking at Palestinian aggression, will surely criticize Israel, no matter what it does. But Israel will nevertheless do what it must to ensure its security. At the same time, its allies will rally, and the Jews of the world, with all their uneasiness, fears and misgivings, will stand as one with Israel.
We pray that well-meaning people on both sides will do all they can to seek peaceful resolution. We pray that the kidnapped soldiers will be returned safely to their families, that Israel can withdraw from Gaza and Lebanon, that the rockets will cease to fall, and that the rocky path to peace is not strewn with impassable rubble.
It’s a long list. Ultimately, we pray it is not too long.