Hear Our Voice

Yesterday, in an episode from the podcast, “Call Me Back,” I heard Israeli author and public intellectual, Yossi Klein Halevy, prophecy these words: 

“October 7 was the collapse of the Jewish state. It was a one-day collapse, but we experienced a kind of pre-enactment of the destruction of the state of Israel, and this is a war (the Israel-Hamas war) to reestablish the credibility of Israeli military deterrence without which the lone non-Arab, non-Muslim state will not survive.”

I cannot clarify President Biden’s statements. I don’t know if he absolutely means what he says, when he is demanding a ceasefire from Israel.  In the meantime, the US continues to arm Israel with efficiency and speed.  I don’t know if his rhetoric of late is a play to the far left, for fear of his election prospects for a second term.  Unfortunately, opaqueness on Israel has been his strategy in recent weeks.

But here is what I know.  By logic and fact, there can be no true ceasefire – and this is both for the sake of Israel and Gaza.  A ceasefire would mean that the titular leader of Hamas, Yahyeh Sinwar, could potentially emerge from his underground with two fingers claiming “Victory.”  The Israeli people will not countenance anything like that.  The hundreds of thousands of Israelis still displaced will not move home into the South or the North.  And most importantly, Israel will have failed its most important mission: to keep Jews safe within the officially recognized and sanctioned borders of the land of Israel. 

If 25% of Hamas’ leadership and battalions remain, Hamas will be able to take back control of Gaza, or at the very least, will continue to sow the seeds of destruction of any force that agrees to take over.  The UN, the Palestinian Authority, the Saudis and Emirates, the US and Western Europe all know this.  The future of Gaza relies on the complete dismantling of Hamas.  Without it, no one will “deign” powerful and assertive enough to take on the task of leading the rebuilding. 

The horrors of war are horrific and there is no one I know who takes solace or joy in the suffering of innocents.  Not so ironically, the sooner the remainder of Hamas is disarmed, the sooner the people of Gaza can hold hands and pray for a future.