Israel: Freier among the nations?

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If you call an Israeli obstinate, rude, impolite, insolent, or any such qualifier, he may or may not care. After all, or so goes the local popular wisdom, we are a country at war, we have better things to think of. If you tell him he has Chutzpah (חוצפה), he probably will take it as a compliment. But !!! if you call him a freier (פראייר), he will be offended to the extreme. The freier is the butt of all jokes, the ultimate object of derision, in short, the one no Israeli ever wants to be. More specifically, the freier is the one always being abused, always being stepped on, the guy standing quietly in line for the supermarket cashier when everyone pushes and shoves, and cuts in front of him. The polite loser.

Unfortunately, the behavior and stated intentions of many of Israel’s “elite”, including high level governmental, military and judicial bodies, make us wonder if Israel has not become a freier country, or rather a country of freiers.

Case in point: For almost 10 months, we have been embroiled into so called negotiations to secure the release of our dear hostages. We all rejoiced when some hostages were returned to their families a few months ago. But where are we now? Israel still wants all hostages to come home. However, the conditions for this release are ever changing, getting more drastic as time goes. Or so are we lead to believe. The truth is there is no one in front of us to negotiate with, the other side of the table is empty. Hamas, with a very sharp instinct, knows that their best stance is to simply stay silent. The self-appointed mediators, in other words Hamas useful idiots: the USA, Egypt and the Qatar cannot (as if they ever wanted to) put pressure on the Hamas to advance the negotiations. No, the only party available to put pressure on is Israel. Hence their daily injunction: Israel must make more, and more and more concessions. That back-and-forth process makes absolutely no sense: too many of the negotiation parameters are either unknow or willingly occulted by the mediators: how many hostages are still alive? What, if anything, Hamas is willing to accept? What will be Egypt’s position once Hamas returns: facilitator of illegal weapon trade? what will Qatar do: fuel once more the fire by financing terror? Given the opportunity, Hamas will re-arm and prepare for the next October 7. The USA, Qatar and Egypt know it, but they refuse to talk about it. Believe us they say, we will be here to defend Israel, nothing bad will happen to you, they say. And Israel yields, again and again and again. We are the freier of this drama. Hamas and its accomplices laugh at us, at our naivety, at our lack of resolve. Freiers we are.

Another example? a short while ago Israel was attacked in the middle of the night by Hezbollah. We had conclusive proofs they were going to hurl thousands of rockets at us. Preemptively the Israeli Air Force managed to prevent this potential disaster by destroying a number of hostile sites. Hezbollah still managed to launch 320 drones and rockets at Israel. And by mid-morning we stopped. We could have, we should have taken advantage of our legitimate defensive position to push forward and cause irreparable damages to all of Hezbollah, from their headquarters to every one of their tunnels and hiding sites. But no. Mr Biden (who by the way took no part in the defense of Israel that day) imposed on Israel “a minimum response and a quick cessation of hostilities”, and Israel yielded. The truth is Biden does not care at all about Israel. He is only motivated by his own image, his future place in history books, and helping kamala win the next presidency. Israel knows all this. And yet we yielded. This is unmistakable freier behavior. Freiers we are.

Case number 3: everyone knows that “land for peace” does not work. Everyone knows, in Israel and abroad, that reverting to the pre-1967 borders is for Israel a suicidal strategy. Everyone knows that the number one stated goal of all palestinian organizations is the complete and total destruction of Israel and the annihilation of the Jewish people. Just read their manifestos, listen to their speeches, watch their demonstrations. And yet, the nations of the world, yes virtually all of them, are exerting extreme pressure on Israel for this so-called 2 states solution and for giving up Jerusalem. But what I find really devastating, is that there are millions of Israelis willing to support this “solution”. They know we will all lose, they know this may mark the end of the Jewish people, certainly (G.d forbid) the end of Israel, yet they endorse it. This is self-destructive freier behavior. Suicidal freiers they are.

One last example: How about the hundreds of thousands who took to the street under a number of pretenses to demand the immediate firing of Netanyahou. The reason did not really matter, all they demanded was for Bibi to disappear, if possible in shame, and for one of their “enlightened leaders” (Barak, Olmert, Lapid, etc.) to take over. They were fed “bubbe meises”, fairy tales: they were made to believe that if Bibi goes, all the problems of Israel will immediately disappear, and we will live in peace, health and prosperity forever. The problem with a bubbe meise is that it is only a fairy tale, and only the ultimate freiers can believe in it. Yet, hundreds of thousands of educated young Israelis chose to herald that cause, provoking dire divisions in the people at a time when our enemies were ready to attack, a time when unity was most needed. Freiers they were. Freiers they are.

One may wonder: what happened to the strong, stiff neck, chutzpetig Israeli we all knew and loved. Has freier suddenly become a fashionable attribute? Being the freier among the nation is not an enviable position, it is not a survivable position. It is time for some in-depth introspection and maybe a sharp look at what values and attitudes Israel wants to be known for. It is time for us to become once more an independent, strong, united people. It is time for us to become once more the masters of our own destiny in our historical, eternal, promised land of Israel. Then, with G.d’s help we will overcome our temporary weaknesses to secure a bright and safe future for our children.