WE are the Good Guys

By Moshe Feiglin

We are prattling ourselves to death; blabbing in the television studios and in the military briefings. “When the Hamas terrorists emerge from underground and see all the destruction, they will understand that they lost.” Really? Does anybody in the Hamas really care about the destruction and the casualties?

What was the Hamas’ status before this war, and what is its status today both in the Arab world and the world at large? That is a determining factor.

Who requests a cease fire and who dictates its conditions? That is a determining factor.

We must understand: A war that does not have a clear, determined, unequivocal and decisive goal will always be lost. If you do not have a clear goal – don’t go to war.

Israel does not have a strategic perspective on why it is fighting. That is why we cannot manage to define a clear goal.

Worst of all – we are fighting unethically, endangering our courageous sons in battle.

What are we fighting for? Against whom?  In the beginning of this war, the stated purpose was to halt the rocket attacks on Israel. This morning, I heard that the goal is the destruction of most of the terror tunnels (at least the ones we know about).

But rockets are not enemies and I cannot remember ever being attacked by a tunnel. The enemy is fanatical Arab Islam, which seeks to destroy Israel. You can call it Hamas, PLO, ISIS, Iran or the Moslem Brotherhood. You can call it the Islamic Movement of the North and you can call it Ahmad Tibi. All of them are different arms of the same octopus; of the same fanatical Arab Islamicideology, defined so well by Arab MK Ahmad Tibi: “We do not have rights in the Land – we have rightsto the Land.

The only innocents in Gaza are the IDF soldiers. We are not in a police operation to capture a crime family. We are in a national war, fighting for the existence of the State of Israel.

They sanctify slavery and death. We sanctify liberty and life. They are the savages of the desert who came to Israel looking for work from the ‘Zionists’ – and we foolishly gave them parts of our Homeland. We armed them with the best weaponry and turned them into a sovereign entity that democratically elected the Hamas, by a vast majority, as its legitimate leadership. Therefore, as soon as the civilians have been given reasonable time to evacuate – any delay in the momentum of battle or any move that endangers the forces of light in their just war against the forces of darkness is patently unethical.

When we retreated from Gaza, we turned it into the southern arm of the Arab Islamic octopus that seeks our complete destruction. It is the arm of the octopus on the threshold of Ashkelon and Tel Aviv. Anything less than decisive victory in Gaza will bring upon us a much more difficult battle against all the other arms of the octopus.

Everyone is Israel is asking why we did not destroy the terror tunnels earlier even though we knew of their existence. Hizballah has one hundred thousand missiles aimed at us from the north. When those missiles start to fly, what will we say? After all, we knew…Why didn’t we destroy them?

The Gazan octopus arm is a test case: It is being closely watched by the rest of the arms. If it is not clear to the northern octopus arm, as well as the arms in Judea and Samaria and the Arabs who live in Israel and are now rising up – and to the ISIS and of course to Iran – to all of them – that an attack on Israel brings about the loss of territory from where the attack was staged and complete liquidation of the local leadership – you can expect a downpour of rockets from the north, nuclear weapons in Iranian hands, ISIS taking control of the Syrian missile arsenal and a horrific war in conditions much more difficult than those we face now.

That is why we have no choice but to conquer Gaza and destroy the Hamas. Not an ongoing operation, shackled in the chains of hypocritical and distorted Western morality – but clear definitions and effective and rapid conquest that will save much bloodshed –f or us and for them as well.

No more complicated battles in the alleyways and tunnels. Rather, rapid division of Gaza into lateral and horizontal axes, conquering of strategic locations and immediate elimination of all the Hamas headquarters, communications and control centers.  Once Israel is in control on the ground, we can allow the civilians to evacuate without threats from the Hamas and then erase any area suspect of  housing tunnels. If we had done this, the Gaza threat would have been behind us long ago – with less casualties and wounded.

This is what is going to happen at any rate. But if we do not plan it and determine our goals, let there be no mistake: We will reach the same point because they will drag us to it. They will be the initiators, however, and we will be the responders. And the cost will be, G-d forbid, much higher – for both sides.

And one more thought on the international hypocrisy and criticism: The world is going to blame us anyway; let us at least save the lives of our soldiers and the lives of others, as well. Reality has proven time and again that Israel’s indecision and ethical and operative confusion do not prevent international criticism and attack. On the contrary, they encourage them.

Operative determination that radiates moral fortitude, born of the deep understanding that this is our Land and that we are the good guy, is what we need to repel the international criticism.

Forward to victory!