Getting Ready for the Next Gaza War

If you haven't heard much about what's happening in Gaza lately, don't be fooled into thinking that all is quiet on Israel's southern front.

Palestinian terrorists continue to fire Kassam rockets on a daily basis from Gaza into Israel, even if the media hardly bothers to report it. Just today, in fact, two rockets hit the Israeli town of Sderot, leaving one woman injured and seven others requiring treatment for shock.

But even more worrisome is what's taking place behind the scenes and just below the surface. As an article in Ha'aretz makes clear, Hamas is busy preparing for nothing less than war with Israel.

Citing Israeli military sources, the paper notes that, "Since the beginning of the year, more than 20 tons of explosives, anti-aircraft missiles and antitank missiles have been smuggled into Gaza."

Furthermore, Hamas has been aiming to improve the weapons in its arsenal: "By increasing the range of its missiles, the deadly force of their warheads and above all, by using high-quality blast explosives, Hamas hopes to heighten the threat to the northern and western Negev from the direction of Gaza," the report says.

"If Hamas succeeds in improving the rockets in its possession, it will be able to store them for months, as opposed to just days, as it does now. That would enable the organization to fire massive salvos at the Negev for days at a time during periods of escalation, as Hezbollah did in northern Israel during the second Lebanon war."

And so, while our own political leaders hem and haw as to what to do, Hamas is taking advantage of Israel's indecisiveness and laying the groundwork for an ugly confrontation in the future.

But instead of waiting for this to happen, instead of giving Hamas time to prepare, wouldn’t it make more sense for Israel to strike now?

Must we repeat the mistakes that preceded this summer's Lebanon war, when Israel sat back and allowed Hizbullah to build up its army and its defensive positions in advance of the conflict?

Is anyone in our leadership paying attention?

Weeping Willows No Longer

Today - Friday - is Hoshana Rabba, the last day of the holiday of Succot and one of the most mysterious days on the Jewish calendar. Mysterious, that is, because so few people seem to grasp its significance or appreciate its ritual.

Take a peek into any synagogue this morning, and you will witness quite a scene, as a line of worshippers, each one bearing the traditional Four Species in his hands, encircles the podium seven times to recall the rite that was performed in the Temple long ago.

The solemnity of the procession quickly gives way to a spirited outburst, as those present each take a bundle of willows and beat them on the floor. Leaves fly off the branches, until the sound of swatting reaches a crescendo that fills the room.

It is, admittedly, quite a sight, not one you would ordinarily associate with a house of worship. Grown men thrashing a bunch of twigs on the floor, making a ruckus as well as a mess. What could this possibly have to do with life in a modern Jewish state?

The answer, in fact, is quite a lot. For Hoshana Rabba contains within it a message that couldn’t be more timely for Israel in its current plight.

For it is on this day, according to tradition, that our fate is at last sealed for the coming year, with the decrees issued on Yom Kippur receiving their final Divine stamp of approval before being sent out, as it were.

Thus, even after all the fasting and prayers of the Day of Atonement, we are still given one more chance on Hoshana Rabba, one last opportunity to correct our mistakes and brighten our future.

Israel now stands at just such a moment. After the past several years of Palestinian terrorism, which shows no signs of abating, the country must choose to either throw up its arms in despair and flee, or stand tall and fight the terrorists.

We need to stop running circles around ourselves until our heads are spinning and we no longer know what to do, which is what seems to be the case with our present Prime Minister. Earlier this year, he was declaring that Israel would have to withdraw unilaterally from much of Judea and Samaria, and now he says that he wants to negotiate a deal with the terrorists. He promised to return kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by the Palestinians back in July, but has essentially failed to do so.

By choosing a particular path and sticking to it, standing firm and fighting terror, Israel can eventually prevail. By circling the podium seven times in the synagogue on Hoshana Rabba, and following the same route around it again and again and again, we are reminding ourselves of just that, for only through persistence and tenacity, and a good deal of faith, can we possibly overcome the challenges that we face.

And while the taking of the willows which follows has deep mystical significance to it, I would also like to think that there is a far simpler message at work here: the Jewish people refuse to be “weeping willows” any more.

We are here to take our fate into our own hands, and to strike away not only the tears, but at those who cause them as well. May it happen soon, with G-d's help.

Chag Sameach - have a happy holiday.

The Wages of Weakness

Israel's foes have now succeeded in opening a second front against the Jewish state.

In a particularly painful and disturbing incident, Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon carried out a cross-border raid along the northern frontier this morning, kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing seven others.

And so, Israel now finds itself desperately trying to retrieve abducted servicemen being held by Islamist fanatics both in Gaza and Lebanon.

The audacity of the terrorists, and their willingness to attack Israeli forces head-on, is a direct result of the weakness that has characterized Israeli policy in recent years.

In May 2000, Israel pulled out of Lebanon like a thief in the night, and in August 2005, Israel fled Gaza in broad daylight. Preferring to buy short-term quiet at the expense of long-term strategic interests, Israel ended up paying a heavy price.

These actions effectively put terrorists on notice that violence works, and that they have little to lose, and much to gain, by continuing to attack the Jewish state.

But it is not too late to stem the tide, and to turn things around in Israel's favor. If the Government has the fortitude and the determination to deliver a smashing blow to Hamas in Gaza and Hizbullah in Lebanon, something good might yet emerge from the disaster of recent weeks.

But whatever happens, let one thing finally be clear: in the long run, the wages of weakness are far more costly than the price of standing firm.

On Remembrance & Redemption

Passover is upon us once again, the festival of freedom when we commemorate our ancestors’ deliverance from bondage in Egypt.

Throughout the world, a familiar scene will repeat itself, as Jewish parents relate the story of the Exodus to their children, preserving the chain of Jewish memory that links us to our past while fortifying our future.

The traditional four cups of wine will be emptied, Matzah and bitter herbs will be consumed, and that distant day so very long ago, when the nation of Israel took its first, tentative steps towards liberty, will be recounted in great detail well into the wee hours of the night.

The Passover Seder is a powerful ritual, one that continues to resonate with many Jews who otherwise are largely unaffiliated or even uninvolved with Jewish life.

But the question that comes to mind, and which demands an answer, is what is the relevance of all this in the 21^st century? After all, Israel is a sovereign and independent country, and most of world Jewry currently resides in the West, where they enjoy unprecedented freedom to live as they see fit.

Why, then, is it so important for us to commemorate what took place on Passover over 3500 years ago?

The question becomes even more pointed when one considers some of the horrors that have occurred to the Jewish people over the centuries specifically on Passover.

Indeed, it was over 1900 years ago that the Jews defending Masada against the invading Roman legions committed suicide on the first day of Passover rather than succumb to slavery and torture. As Josephus writes in The Wars of the Jews (Book 7, Chap. 9), the scene was heartbreaking as “the husbands tenderly embraced their wives, and took their children into their arms, and gave the longest parting kisses to them, with tears in their eyes,” before killing themselves and their families.

In the medieval period, European anti-Semites conjured up the blood libel, hurling false accusations against the Jews of murdering Christian children as part of the Passover preparations. The first such instance took place in 1144, when Jews in England were accused of having killed young William of Norwich and then draining the blood out of his body to make Matzah for Passover.

In 1497, Passover coincided with a cruel decree issued by King Manuel of Portugal, who ordered all Jewish children between the ages of 4 and 14 to be forcibly converted to Catholicism. Countless thousands of Jewish youngsters were taken from their parents on the first day of the holiday. They were compulsorily baptized and then handed over to be raised by Catholic families. As historian Cecil Roth described it (A History of the Marranos, p. 58), “Scenes of indescribable horror were witnessed as they were torn away by the royal bailiffs.

More recently, on April 19, 1943, the German army entered the Warsaw Ghetto on the eve of Passover to liquidate and deport the remaining Jews to the Nazi death camps, prompting the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

And who can forget the Passover Massacre in Netanya that took place four years ago, in 2002, when 30 Jews were killed and 120 others were injured by a Palestinian suicide bomber belonging to Hamas, which now rules Gaza?

What, then, is to be gained by focusing our attention on what happened on Passover 35 centuries ago, if the intervening period has been marked by so much calamity and bloodshed?

The answer, in fact, is really quite simple, and it goes directly to the heart of what Passover, and our nation’s history, is truly all about: the Jewish people’s unshakeable determination to persevere, even in the wake of disaster and tragedy.

After all, our ancestors merited salvation from Egypt because they did not abandon their unique identity, even when Pharaoh’s taskmasters worked them to death and murdered their newborn male infants.

The first Passover signified their rescue, creating a model of deliverance that would be replicated over the millennia: stubborn Jewish fortitude in the face of overwhelming odds and a cruel enemy, followed by a heartrending appeal for Divine mercy. It was this powerful combination of faith and identity which paved the way for our ultimate triumph and liberation.

The reason we continue to look back to that first Passover is because it was a microcosm of our people’s historical saga throughout the ages. Then, as now, the nation of Israel was forged through anguish and suffering, which was followed by an unprecedented act of heavenly kindness and intervention.

It is precisely because of Passover’s power to inspire Jewish resolve that our foes have seized upon it over the centuries to try and break our collective spirit. From Portugal’s King Manuel to the Palestinian Hamas, our foes have recognized the festival’s ability to stir the Jewish people’s hopes for a better future.

So no matter how bleak the present might seem, Passover instructs us to view the world with a healthy dose of historical and theological perspective. “A person is obligated to view himself as if he too had left Egypt,” says the Haggadah, wisely reminding us that in the process of looking to our nation’s past, we gain a glimpse of our own bright and redemptive future.

A Palestinian Authority Declaration of War

Anyone expecting that Hamas’ overwhelming victory in Palestinian legislative elections would transform the terrorist organization into a moderate political force was in for an unpleasant surprise over the weekend.

In a document released to the press outlining the incoming Hamas government’s guiding principles, the organization made clear that it has not budged one inch from its determination to continue killing innocent Jews.

“Resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right of the Palestinian people in its path to put an end to the occupation and the reinstatement of its national rights,” states the document, which also insists that the so-called Palestinian “right of return” is something that “can’t be given up”.

In other words, Hamas plans to use the levers of government that will be at its disposal in order to continue carrying out terrorist attacks against the Jewish state. The Palestinian Authority, and all its “security” branches, will now be guided by the explicit policy of “resistance in all its forms”, which is Hamas-talk for suicide bombings, shootings and other types of attacks.

If this does not constitute a formal declaration of war by the Palestinian Authority against Israel, it is hard to imagine what would.