Not long ago, Israel
celebrated its 66th birthday. This is a young country from the point of
view of history, tradition, culture and legacy. Sixty-six years have
passed and we are still surrounded by enemies who refuse to recognize
our right to exist. We have developed, built and established a
democracy, which with all of its flaws is a source of strength and
pride. We have looked toward the future and have known what needed to be
done to provide for the next generations.
Our enemies have
morphed and changed shape, but have not changed their objective, their
way of thinking and approach. They have been stuck with leadership that
cannot see beyond its own nose, and which is not willing to pay the
price needed to build a future for its people.
But something bad has
happened to us in recent years as well. We have lost the feeling of
sharing a mutual fate, our sense of responsibility, our spirit of
initiative and determination, everything that brought us to realizing
that war is the last option -- but that when it is forced on us we have
no choice but to win it. The only thing remaining from the spirit that
defined us on the eve of the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War is our
ability to be pained by loss and embrace the bereaved.
In the not-so-distant
past, going on the attack was the right way to defend ourselves and our
borders. Today, we are doing everything possible to improve our ability
to sit and take cover in a fortified safe area. Until recently, we
educated our children and imbued in them a social vitality and the need
to volunteer and be part of the national effort toward winning wars of
necessity, the heroes of which, with their sacrifices, gave us life.
Now, we have become a society that sanctifies status, pretentiousness
and reality entertainment, the heroes of which are "rich."
We find ourselves at
the height of an era that threatens our existence. The development of
the terror states and violent radicalism surrounding us, which has
bubbled to the surface in certain communities and towns in Israeli
territory, significantly threaten our daily lives and quality of life.
The Hamas government in Gaza and its terrorist army threaten hundreds of
thousands of homes in Israel; Hamas' satellites in Judea and Samaria,
which have already proved their viciousness with abductions and suicide
bombings, disrupt our daily lives. Riots, dual loyalties and open
support for those who wish us harm, within Arab communities and in east
Jerusalem, their willingness to challenge the state's laws and hurt the
IDF and police -- prove that the threat is already here. We have
withstood more difficult threats in the past. The armies of Egypt, Syria
and Jordan, along with Iraqi units, threatened to throw us into the sea
-- and we defeated them.
Great leaders do not
need strategic advisers; they live and breathe strategy, not politics.
Courageous leaders think about the future of their country, not their
own futures. Real leaders do not require media advisers to tell them how
to explain to the Israeli people that a war of existence has been
forced upon us.
I have no doubt that we
have the strength to eradicate the current threats. We have no other
choice; if we don't win the war for our right to exist today, we will
have nothing left to fight for tomorrow. Whoever wants to be our
neighbor and live beside us in peace, and whoever wants to be a part of
the State of Israel, needs to understand we have no intention of losing
what we have already built. No less important, he needs to understand we
are giving him the opportunity to accumulate assets that he won't want
to lose in the future.
Operation Protective
Edge, now underway with the goal of "reinforcing deterrence," will not
bring us to the safe shores of "two states for two peoples" and to a
routine of quality daily life we yearn for. Only war against Hamas, in
Gaza and Judea and Samaria, the purpose of which is to stamp out its
military infrastructure, including its operatives and weapons, will help
change the reality. This, in conjunction with setting a price to be
paid by the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria, in the form of
withholding work permits while no diplomatic agreement exists, along
with fundamentally and honestly confronting the dual loyalties of
Israeli Arabs.
Only in this manner can
we take the initiative and lead a process of peace through strength.
Anything else will be a basis for the continuation of this insufferable
reality, in which the Jewish majority is a hostage in the land of
Israel.
Brig. Gen. (res.) Zvika Fogel is a former chief of staff of the IDF Southern Command.
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