An Immodest, Yet Necessary, Proposal

Now I don’t claim to be an expert on counter-terrorist warfare nor do I aver that I have all the answers. But what I do have is a soul full of anger at what is becoming an almost daily occurrence in my country and tremendous outrage at the government I elected to defend me, my family, and my fellow Israelis. I am tired and sickened by the ever increasing news coverage with photos of my fellow Jews being stabbed by heartless fanatics. I am thoroughly enraged by the growing incidences of my people being shot on our roads. I am disheartened by the lackluster and seemingly impotent defense against rock throwing barbarians and those who delight in tossing firebombs at our homes and vehicles. I was made ill to my stomach when I read of a two year old infant shot in the leg and how six young Jews are now orphans at the claws of Arab savages and their guns.

Israel, which has one of its founding principles to be a safe haven for the Jewish people is descending into a place of internal danger while seemingly, also, unable to defend us from external threats of destruction and daily missile fire. The first duty of any polity is to protect its citizens and secure its borders.

When rockets and mortar shells streak into our cities and villages, there is no doubt in my mind that our Israel Air Force will take to the skies and blast away at a pre-designated target-often an empty building. Why do I write this? Don’t the military strategists know that the enemy will always figure out how and when we will retaliate? And, if we know where this soon to be bombed location is, didn’t we know of it previously? If so, why hasn’t it, and all the others that our satellites, drones and field intelligence have discovered been summarily pounded into dust?

Oh yes, the issue of proportional response and the problem of collateral damage hold back the sensitive minds of our political leadership that direct the armed forces. So, Hamas sends a rocket towards Sderot that lands, hopefully, in an empty field, so we send the IAF to blow up a building where there might be some practical advantage for the time being for its destruction.

When is a war, not a war? It is when one side knows that the other is too afraid of bad publicity and worthless international umbrage. When the other side takes advantage of the weak and paltry response that they figure they can absorb anyway. When does war become cost efficient?

When the criminals of Hezbollah lob a missile into northern Israel or the Golan Heights, they know assuredly so, that spot from which the projectile originated will be targeted by our artillery. So there will be further great holes in the ground and our soldiers will be busy cleaning the artillery tubes for the next salvo to come.

I am no admirer of the late Moshe Dayan, an egocentric and narcissistic prevaricator, show boater and antiquities hoarder. The man responsible for closing the bridges over the Jordan River after the 6 Day War thereby halting the exodus of Arabs from Yehudah and Shomron and the person who surrendered the control of the Temple Mount to the Hashemite dominated Waqf after our brave paratroops shed their blood to liberate our holy places. However, he did say one message that still makes sense. He said this prior to the Sinai Campaign of 1956 which delivered Gaza and the Sinai Desert into our hands after 100 hours of battle. He said that Israel cannot protect every farmer in his field nor every vehicle on our roads, but we can make the cost of our blood too high a price for the enemy to pay. Words that are as relevant today as they were when he first said them

The Gaza Strip was dominated by Egyptian controlled terrorists, known as “Fedayeen”-“Self sacrificers” whose bloodthirsty acts included the mining of Israeli roads in the Negev Desert and the murder of hundreds of Israeli citizen.

The Western world fails to understand that we face a brutal and savage enemy on all fronts. Not just the crazed mullahs of Iran whose threats are becoming greater in scope every day. Recently we have witnessed the massing of Iranian troops on our northern frontier. The transfer of more lethal weapons to our Hezbollah and Hamas enemies goes unabated, even when we successfully destroy such shipments, inevitably some get through. According to estimates, the number of rockets that could pour down on our tiny country number over 100,000 projectiles-more than all the armed forces of many much larger nations possess.

Also the assaults by so-called “lone wolves” on our citizens in the streets of Jerusalem and the highways all across our country inevitably create fear and panic. Unless the government takes much sterner and resolute actions against this type of inhuman behavior, we, the people, cannot and will not be deterred to looking for our own personal defense. No, I am not advocating vigilantism, I am preaching vigilance and preparing personal protection.

Of course, it would be far more efficient and much more powerful for our government and military to do the work for which they were created and forget that international condemnation is often ameliorated by national confidence.

Therefore, I propose the following measures to be implemented for the defense of our nation and people:

Any and all enemy fire directed at the State of Israel, its citizens, property and interests by the terrorist organizations around us be responded too with overwhelming military force in a manner to be determined by the Israeli authorities charged with this task. It must be recalled that the government of the British Empire in 1944 responded to the V1 and V2 missile attacks upon London with the massive firebombing of German cities without regard to military nor civilian casualties, ergo. “collateral damage.” Are our lives no less important than British ones?
Rocket attacks, mortar bombs or artillery shells directed at our country should and must be responded to by direct and sustainable counter-fire regardless of the source of the enemy action. The death of civilians, while unfortunate, the responsibility of same lies with those who harbor non-combatants in or around areas from which lethal fire is directed.
Any and all assaults upon Israel or Israeli forces from the Hamas occupied Gaza Strip must immediately bring a halt to all deliveries of goods of all types including food, fuel, water, electricity, medical supplies and all materials associated with construction. Just as the citizens of the Axis powers suffered by the aggression of their respective leadership at the hands of the Allied powers, so must the people of enemy occupied Gaza. It is thoroughly inconceivable that we feed and supply our enemies. Furthermore, any attempt by foreign powers or international organizations to halt our offensive must be answered with all necessary diplomatic tools and appropriate warnings. Of course, depending on the advice of our political leadership and military staff, the degree of the punishment upon Gaza may be decided by the exigency of the times. But the policy must be on the books and employed as necessary.
The situation in Israel’s northern frontier is decidedly different from that of Gaza in that we do not supply Hezbollah with vital materials nor water or energy. However, since Lebanon, a sovereign nation permits the harboring of this enemy force within its borders, the Lebanese government, that country’s infrastructure and its military are legitimate targets.
The 1973 ceasefire with Syria, a nation with which we are at war, has been abrogated by the Damascus government on numerous occasions both by its national military and/or irregular (terrorist) forces from within its sovereign territory. Therefore, what holds true for Lebanon holds true for Syria.

As to the numerous and deadly attacks on our citizens by non-governmental agents operating from within Israel or Israeli controlled territory, eg. Yehudah and Shomron, I firmly believe that the following measures can and should be employed:

Anyone, regardless of age, sex or national origin that attacks Israeli civilians with any type of projectile, not limited to stones, firebombs, firearms or edged weapons be immediately treated as a deadly threat to life and be answered with live fire with the express permission to shoot to kill.
Any person or persons found to have aided and/or abetted such assaults are;a)-if they are Israeli citizens, their citizenship is automatically and irrevocably revoked, all payments of any kind, not limited to National Insurance Institute benefits, private pensions, bank accounts and any or all real property, become forfeit to the State of Israel. b)-they will be deported immediately to whatever nation they might have dual citizenship with and the costs to be taken from their personal assets. If no dual nationality is available, they are to be transported either over the bridges to the Hashemite Kingdom or to Hamas occupied Gaza.
Any part of any village, town or city that aided, harbored or supplied materials for terrorist actions, that section of the municipality, after being evacuated of its denizens, will be summarily blown up with explosives. This is not collective punishment but the same methods used by the British authorities during the period of the “Palestine Mandate” and are legal and justifiable under international law. Those who do not participate in the aforementioned “lone wolf” attacks, are to be left in peace.

The State of Israel and its citizens cannot be held hostage any longer by the threats of terror organizations, its proxies or the possible reaction by national states with which it has either a continuing state of war or the status of belligerent. The public declarations by its enemies as to the destruction of its existence and the scurrilous individual attacks upon its citizens cannot continue without a firm, resolute and powerful response using all the police and/or military ofrce at its disposal.

Realizing that the proposed tactics and strategy will be called by some as cruel, violent, and perhaps wicked, let me remind you that the terrorists’ war against the Jewish people in Israel, nay, since the beginning of the Zionist movement to restore Jewish sovereignty in its ancient homeland, has been one directed against it by a bloodthirsty and savage enemy who has never been assuaged from committing incredible acts of slaughter and brigandage. From the assaults on Jewish worshipers in Jerusalem in 1920, 1921 to the massacre of the Jews in Hevron in 1929, to the murder of Jewish travelers on our roads before our independence and the war that the local Arabs fought against us from November, 1947 to the present day, we have carried out a failed policy of self restraint.

We have sought time and time again for the understanding and support of the international community through an organization which was founded upon the bodies of our decimated people. We have attempted to foment good relations with new states throughout the Third World to have most of their representatives rail against us. We have seen the nations of Europe, in our moment of greatest need in October, 1973, even ban the flights of needed military supplies from their skies.

We have surrendered parts of our homeland into the control of those who send thugs and killers among us and who cheer and distribute candies when our dead are buried. We are, as the Bible tells us, ” a people who dwells alone.” But a great prophet of that Bible also tells us “He who arises to slay you, hasten and kill him first.” There is no commandment that instructs us to accept the murder of our children, nor the slaying of their parents.

A nation that does not defend even the weakest of its people cannot and will not survive. We must not only recite, but we must resolutely and firmly, without hesitation, forever shout to the world:

AM ISRAEL CHAI!