It ain’t over ’til it’s over…

The great American baseball player Yogi Berra has often been quoted with this witty little sentence that on the surface seems so obvious.

With today’s events unfolding rapidly, as rapidly as the barrage of Grad rockets fired towards the city of Beer Sheva, Hamas and its “armed wing” broke yet another cease-fire agreement.

In an announcement that came as no surprise, Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri blamed Israel for the breakdown of cease fire talks in Cairo.  He claimed he had no knowledge of any rockets being fired from the Gaza strip.

Another lie.  Another deception.  Another pretense, a “Hudna” (truce) broken again and again to gain time to replenish supplies, ammunition, rockets, launchers, and to continue along that same path, a path that has at its end the destruction of Israel.

And so I ask myself, again and yet again, when will this be over?  I ask, because I know that the answer is a terrible answer.  It is a painful answer.  It is an answer that goes against what all of us who were in front line units in the IDF were taught.  It is an answer that goes against what we learned and what we teach.  It is an answer that we study in the Holy Scriptures because we know that if we do not finally do what we have to do, this will never be over.

A sacrifice must be made in this deadly game of “Middle East Chess”. One of the “players” has to be removed from the board in order for there to be a stalemate that will eventually lead to a victory for both Palestinians and Israelis.  A victory that will bring peace and hope, prosperity and calm to both.

We read about it, and we hear it from both Palestinian Arabs and Israelis who have come to terms with the two state solution.  A solution that was originally drafted and approved back on November 29, 1947.  Two peoples, living side by side.  In peace.  One of the “players” has to be removed from the board.  That “player” is Hamas.

If we want the Palestinian people to prosper, and to flourish, Hamas must be removed.  If we want to see the Palestinian people have hope for a better future for their children and perhaps even for themselves, Hamas must be removed.

There is no room for a political and terrorist movement that demands the destruction of another people.  Hamas has declared its objective.  That objective is to eradicate the Jewish people, be they in Israel or outside of Israel.  This will not be over until Hamas is vanquished, until Hamas is relegated to the back pages of history as a dark and sinister chapter in the unfolding events of the Middle East.

This will not be over until the people of Palestine, the Arabs of Palestine, realize that they cannot live without making peace with the Jewish people who live in Israel, and the Jewish people who live outside of Israel.  For once these Palestinian people take hold of their own destiny, and rid themselves of the tyranny of Hamas, many will come to the aid of the Palestinian people, including Jews.

Yes, “It ain’t over ’till it’s over…” and what a horrible price Hamas exacts upon the Palestinian people until it will be over.