Fires are burning

The most recent attacks on southern Israel from the Gazan side of the border with Israel have fortunately not cost human lives but instead have cost severe damage to the fields on the Israeli side.

To date, more than 800 dunams  (200 acres) of barley and wheat fields have been destroyed by massive fires. As I write these lines, firefighters are struggling and battling to contain the blazing fire at the Beeri Forest where many trees have already been burned down.

This is our dry season and the wind carries the flames from one place to another.

It is a new problem for the IDF, frustrated by an inability to prevent the fires being sent from across the Gazan fence. Our army takes pride in protecting our people from rockets, tunnel attacks and even from Iranian drones but they are stymied by the Palestinian new weapons of destruction… childrens’ kites carrying cans of  burning fuel, Molotov cocktails, across the Israel-Gaza border at Kerem Shalom.

There is no Iron Dome to catch the kites before they land. There is seemingly no way to neutralize the burning bombs attached to the kites prior to their landing in our fields.

Water cannons are ineffective in soaking them in mid-air. Amazing !   Childrens’  toys are the newest weapons of destruction to homes and property !

One solution, which the outside world seems to condemn, is for our snipers to catch the Palestinian youths and to shoot them before they have a chance to send their kites flying high over the border fence which thankfully separates us from them.

Fires are burning. The flames light up the sky. These are not the Lag B’Omer fires. These are the fires of wanton hatred. These are the fires which we, so far, have been unable to quench.

They are witnesses to the world of the intent of Hamas to burn us out of our land which we have sown and tilled with loving care. Hamas, which controls and enslaves Gaza and its population, has no will to prevent their youths from attaching dangerous fire to kites capable of crossing our border and destroying our fields.

How can we retaliate? How can we destroy the Gazan kites before they land on Israel’s border?

One way is to use the water cannons more effectively against the flame throwers.  Another way is to douse the criminal protestors with gas, blinding them before they can come closer to the border fence.

A third way is to fill the water cannons with a non-disappearing paint which, when sprayed upon the protestors, will be nigh impossible to remove, permanently marking them as criminals whom the IDF can then identify  and can  arrest them.

We need a military expert renowned for knowledge of the law of gravity to instruct us how to turn the kites back in the direction of Gaza from whence they came.

Is our border fence so delicate that it can be breached by the hands of hate? I would suggest that we electrify all of our border fences which would be a barrier to anyone whose hands attempt to touch them.

Am Yisrael….people of Israel:  our lands are burning. Our fields, lovingly planted, are burning. And most of all…our tempers are burning.

Childrens’ kites are meant to bring glee and joy to the children. They are not meant to be weapons of destruction.

If we cannot shoot down the kites before they reach the ground, let us then take aim to shoot the senders of fanatic hate. Show no mercy. Show no compassion. Show only the will of the people of Israel to live safely and securely on our land.

As it is written by our ancient rabbis and scholars. “kol adam karov etzel atzmo”… every man must put his own needs first.

And our need is to rid terrorists and criminals by any and all means,  far away from the borders of our God-promised land.