Saturday, August 03, 2024
From Ian:
Douglas Murray: Israel has shown it can still hit back – and now the world can sleep safer
Douglas Murray: Israel has shown it can still hit back – and now the world can sleep safer
Every one of the troubles affecting Israel at present originate in Iran. It is the Revolutionary Islamic government there that has made the eradication of Israel a priority. It is Iran that is ensuring that Israel is fighting a war on – effectively – seven fronts. Not just against Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Iran but against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen among many others.Arsen Ostrovsky and John Spencer: Israel Reestablished Deterrence. It Should be Praised, Not Admonished
After the October 7 attacks – again funded and backed by Iran – the regime in Tehran looked on with satisfaction as the world turned not on Hamas but on Israel. The regime delighted in the useful idiots and others in the West turning against Israel rather than on the terrorists of Hamas. The Supreme Leader – Ayatollah Khamenei – even expressed his public gratitude and support for students at American universities who were bringing their institutions to a halt as a protest against Israel’s right to defend itself.
How much happier they must have been in recent months as the preposterous nobodies at the so-called International Criminal Court declared that they were seeking arrest warrants for the democratically elected prime minister of Israel – Benjamin Netanyahu – and his defence minister. Oh and also for two of the leaders of Hamas. Since the ICC has no evidence of war crimes committed by the Israelis it has announced the warrants ahead of any investigation. A novel concept: to announce an arrest and then start looking for a crime. Though it is hardly surprising given the illegitimate nature of the court and the wild politicisation that has predictably occurred in it.
So where will the rest of Israel’s allies be now?
In the US Kamala Harris is busily trying to boast to her base that she is being “tough” on the Israelis. There is little evidence that she intends to be even equally “tough” on Iran. And in the UK our new government has not only acceded to the preposterous ICC (and good luck David Lammy when your time for arrest comes), it has also repeatedly criticised the Israeli government.
It is the wrong time to do either. For the sake of peace in the Middle East it is necessary for Iran’s terrorist chiefs to be hunted down. And if the British government wanted to do something meaningful for once, perhaps instead of grandstanding it could finally round up the regime operatives here in Britain? I wonder if they will.
There are those who now insist that the elimination of Haniyeh and Shukr will only escalate regional tensions. To them we ask: Where have you been the last 10 months?Crying with the mourners in Majdal Shams
Hamas initiated the massacre of October 7 and were joined by Hezbollah the day after, having since fired over 7,250 rockets at northern Israel from Lebanon.
Iran has meantime been pulling the strings from Tehran as the grandmaster of both Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as the Houthis, who joined long ago from Yemen.
If anyone has been escalating regional tensions, it has been the international community, which has been largely trying to pressure Israel into showing restraint or compromise, instead of demanding Hezbollah and Hamas, cease the attacks, disarm and release all the hostages, or that Iran reign in their proxies.
In doing so, the international community has only emboldened these terror groups and encouraged their regional patrons to escalate tensions further.
If anything, the world should thank Israel now, as the elimination of Haniyeh and Shukr ought to send a clear message to all the terror groups and their enablers that their actions come at a heavy price, and they should reconsider their involvement.
Israel's renewed deterrence can also have a positive impact on the hostage negotiations. Although there will be some uncertainty with respect to the negotiations in the short-term, in the medium term, it should place greater pressure on Hamas to accept a deal.
There is no denying that Hamas has been utterly decimated and embarrassed. Their leadership is destroyed, its military dismantled into a fraction of its former self, and Sinwar has never been so isolated. Although Hamas is unlikely to re-engage in negotiations so soon for fear of losing face and being seen as succumbing to Israel's overpowering, they will need to reach some kind of agreement, so as to have at least something to show and avoid the fate of Haniyeh and Deif.
Israel's audacious targeted operations this past week only underscore that the path to stability in the region and return of the hostages, will come from renewed Israeli deterrence and strength.
The men and women separated, waiting on lines to comfort the mourners. The bleachers of the stadium-like hall were packed. Large pictures of each murdered child sat on chairs. Each child’s mother sat directly behind the poster of her child.
It was crushing. Devastating. And it seemed that the oxygen had been sucked from the room.
Tears streaming, bereft of words, we offered gestures, sentiments, and the anguish in our hearts for the few seconds we had with each mother before the line pushed us forward. They responded, some crying, others in shock, some simply numb. They thanked us for coming and being with them.
Most of the people in the room were Druze, but there were other Jewish Israelis, and some Muslims as well, who had come to grieve with the community. We climbed the rows to sit in seats and just be with them in their time of pain.
Messages kept coming into my phone. “There are sirens and falls very close to you. Someone was just killed.”
I felt terrible worrying people, but being there was the right thing for me.
Knowing that I had no GPS, I asked Esther and Ilanit, two women who had come from their moshav in the Golan if I could follow them out, understanding that I would have to traverse the Golan south to return home, instead of taking the route west, through the Galilee, which was literally on fire. The rockets that had killed Nir Popko, 28, from Kibbutz HaGoshrim had started fires across the Galilee.
By now, we were a group. We met up with the men outside, drank more coffee, and were told by Rim and Mahmud that before leaving, we would come to their home and refresh ourselves.
Their home sits at the top of the hill, with a gorgeous view of Mount Hermon and the entire village. It is beautiful, spotless, warm and very homey. From the outside porch, Mahmud shows us the playground and soccer field where the rocket fell — in the center of the town — and where he was when he heard it. I spoke with Rim as she made the coffee and marveled at the woman who could have white carpeting in her kitchen — with not one spot on it!
Over coffee, wafers, and fruit, we heard about how Mahmud built his home (his brothers live on the floors below) and how he built a home for Shmuel, another Golan resident who joined our group and helped my father and Harris (who don’t speak Hebrew) navigate the men’s section.
I looked around the room as we chatted. Three Jewish Israelis from the Golan, a Druze couple, myself, my dad, and Harris, all family for the day… and perhaps beyond.
With a three-hour drive ahead of me, I reluctantly said we needed to get on our way. Rim, and then Mahmud, invited us to sleep over, but I had worried my family members enough for one day. I did promise that I would come back, God willing, after the war was over, to accept their hospitality.
Leaving was hard. I felt attached to the people I had met, the community I had discovered — and I knew it would be some time before we could return. In the western sky, a massive plume of cloud and smoke stretched eastward. The stench of fire was strong.
We followed Shmuel, Esther, and Ilanit down the Golan, past the massive wind turbines, old bunkers, and vast fields. Shmuel stopped to show us the border with Syria, a stone’s throw from the road we drove on, and then escorted us all the way to the Sea of Galilee, where he called to give us directions for the rest of the way, and invited us to return and visit them in their homes and see the Golan without war. Then, they turned left and we went right.
As I drove, I thought about the phone call that morning. She asked if I knew someone in Majdal Shams. I didn’t then. I do now.
