War is not new to Israel

In our day social media is providing shocking footage of up to date actions and atrocities that the major news outlets seem to censor out of their reportage a lot of the time. This is an imperfect way of getting impartial news because social media is very subjective and relies on emotional responses and sheer shock. Anyone watching the clips that are circulating finds it shocking to say the least. A lot of the current social media footage releases come from smartphone savvy Hamas terrorists who proudly post their atrocities against Israelis and the brief footage sticks in the mind. Who is not shocked by the images of the old Israeli Savta (granny) sitting stoically as she is carted off as a hostage by Hamas thugs, or the poor young woman who is pulled out of a van bleeding and dragged by her hair and shoved into the passengers seats, or the young woman pinned down on a motorbike pleading for her life, or young Israeli babies in cages, it's a long list of anti-Israeli propaganda.

All this can depress people since most people have not studied history and know little about Jewish History and Israel's history. What happened fifty or seventy five or a hundred years ago seems like a ghost ship sailing in the mists of time not to be understood or deciphered. However, to serious students of Jewish History, and of the history of modern Israel, sometimes things seem a little clearer than they do to the ordinary lay person who does not think that history is an important subject, with it often being maligned as being "boring" and hence relegated to oblivion.

While one must be very cautious about using Wikipedia as a source of reliable information about anything to do do with Judaism and be aware of its often left-wing bias against Israel, I have nevertheless found it to be a treasure house of information about many subjects since it is after all the world's largest encyclopedia with nearly seven million articles in English on various subjects compared to the average old fashioned print encyclopedias like the famous Encyclopedia Britannica that has about 80,000 articles only, by comparison.

As a student of Jewish and Israeli history I have often marvelled at the fact that approximately every decade since Israel's founding in 1948, very reliably, Israel's Arab enemies launch yet another war or a series of warring conflicts against Israel and that the Arabs have consistently lost to Israel, yet like a recurring disease they keep on revisiting and fighting Israel as if programmed to self-destruct and throw themselves at their inevitable defeat at the hands of the Israelis and the Israel Defense Forces.

As a believing Jew it is easy to understand because we know that we live in the Acharit HaYamim, the End of Days, when troubles will befall the world with astounding rapidity culminating with the Ingathering of the Jewish Exiles to the Land of Israel, the arrival of the true Jewish Messiah, and the war of Gog and Magog, the defeat of Amalek and the building of the Jewish Third Temple in Jerusalem. Seemingly everything that has transpired in recent times, in particular including all the wars in the Middle East and especially the wars the aggressive Arabs and their malicious supporters in the world have fought against Israel and its Jews, are all clear signs of the actualization of this process predicted by Torah, Rabbinic and Jewish prophecies starting thousands of years ago.

In fact the wars by the Arabs against the Jews in Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, started before 1948 with Jews arriving in their ancestral homeland in the Land of Israel, in large numbers starting in the late 1800s due to rising anti-Semitism in European and Islamic countries. Olim, the Jewish settlers who arrived in Ottoman Turkish controlled Palestine until 1918 who tried to develop the land and to build villages and homes were constantly attacked by marauding Arabs. After 1918 with the advent of the British Mandate of Palestine with more Jews arriving by the 1920s and 1930s there were full blown massacres of hundreds of Jews in British-controlled Palestine with the Jews having little opportunity to defend themselves since the mostly pro-Arab British were the policing occupying power.

This Wikipedia page is a must read for anyone who needs to understand that Israel has been fighting wars constantly timed basically with every passing decade since its founding in the late 1940s:

"Since its declaration of independence in May 1948, the State of Israel has fought and won eight recognized wars with its neighbouring Arab states, two major Palestinian Arab uprisings known as the First Intifada and the Second Intifada (see Israeli–Palestinian conflict), and a broad series of other armed engagements rooted in the Arab–Israeli conflict.

• 1948 Arab–Israeli War (November 1947 – July 1949) – Started as 6 months of civil war between Jewish and Arab militias when the mandate period in Palestine was ending and turned into a regular war after the establishment of Israel and the intervention of several Arab armies. In its conclusion, a set of agreements were signed between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, called the 1949 Armistice Agreements, which established the armistice lines between Israel and its neighbours, also known as the Green Line.
• Palestinian Fedayeen insurgency (1950s–1960s) – Palestinian Arab attacks and reprisal operations carried out by the Israel Defense Forces during the 1950s and 1960s. These actions were in response to constant fedayeen incursions during which Arab guerrillas infiltrated from Syria, Egypt, and Jordan into Israel to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. The policy of the reprisal operations was exceptional due to Israel's declared aim of getting a high 'blood cost' among the enemy side which was believed to be necessary in order to deter them from committing future attacks.
• Suez Crisis (October 1956) – A military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel, beginning on 29 October 1956, with the intention to occupy the Sinai Peninsula and to take over the Suez Canal. The attack followed Egypt's decision of 26 July 1956 to nationalize the Suez Canal after the withdrawal of an offer by Britain and the United States to fund the building of the Aswan Dam. Although the Israeli invasion of the Sinai was successful, the United States and USSR forced it to retreat. Even so, Israel managed to re-open the Straits of Tiran and pacified its southern border.
• Six-Day War (June 1967) – Fought between Israel and Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The nations of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, and others also contributed troops and arms to the Arab forces. Following the war, the territory held by Israel expanded significantly ("The Purple Line") : The so called 'West Bank' (including East Jerusalem) from Jordan, Golan Heights from Syria, Sinai and Gaza from Egypt.
• War of Attrition (1967–1970) – A limited war fought between the Israeli military and forces of the Egyptian Republic, the USSR, Jordan, Syria, and the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1967 to 1970. It was initiated by the Egyptians as a way of recapturing the Sinai from the Israelis, who had been in control of the territory since the mid-1967 Six-Day War. The hostilities ended with a ceasefire signed between the countries in 1970 with frontiers remaining in the same place as when the war began.
• Yom Kippur War (October 1973) – Fought from 6 to 26 October 1973 by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel as a way of recapturing part of the territories which they lost to the Israelis back in the Six-Day War. The war began with a surprise joint attack by Egypt and Syria on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Egypt and Syria crossed the cease-fire lines in the Sinai and Golan Heights, respectively. Eventually Arab forces were defeated by Israel and there were no significant territorial changes.
• Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon (1971–1982) – PLO relocate to South Lebanon from Jordan and stage attacks on the Galilee and as a base for international operations. In 1978, Israel launches Operation Litani – the first Israeli large-scale invasion of Lebanon, which was carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in order to expel PLO forces from the territory. Continuing ground and rocket attacks, and Israeli retaliations, eventually escalate into the 1982 War.
  • 1982 Lebanon War (1982) – Began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon to expel the PLO from the territory. The Government of Israel ordered the invasion as a response to the assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, by the Abu Nidal Organization and due to the constant terror attacks on northern Israel made by the Palestinian guerrilla organizations which resided in Lebanon. The war resulted in the expulsion of the PLO from Lebanon and created an Israeli Security Zone in southern Lebanon.
• South Lebanon conflict (1985–2000) – Nearly 15 years of warfare between the Israel Defense Forces and its Lebanese Christian proxymilitias against Lebanese Muslim guerrilla, led by Iranian-backed Hezbollah, within what was defined by Israelis as the "Security Zone" in South Lebanon.
• First Intifada (1987–1993) – First large-scale Palestinianuprising against Israel
• Second Intifada (2000–2005) – Second Palestinian uprising, sometimes called The Oslo War, a period of intensified violence, which began in late September 2000.
• 2006 Lebanon War (summer 2006) – Began as a military operation in response to the abduction of two Israeli reserve soldiers by the Hezbollah. The operation gradually strengthened, to become a wider confrontation. The principal participants were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military. The conflict started on 12 July 2006 and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006, when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. The war resulted in a stalemate.
• Gaza War or Operation Cast Lead (December 2008 – January 2009) – Three-week armed conflict between Israel and Hamas during the winter of 2008–2009. In an escalation of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israel responded to ongoing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip with military force in an action titled "Operation Cast Lead". Israel opened the attack with a surprise air strike on 27 December 2008. Israel's stated aim was to stop such rocket fire from and the import of arms into Gaza. Israeli forces attacked military and civilian targets, police stations, and government buildings in the opening assault. Israel declared an end to the conflict on 18 January and completed its withdrawal on 21 January 2009.
• 2012 Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip or Operation Pillar of Defense (November 2012) – Military offensive on the Gaza Strip.[1]
• 2014 Gaza War or Operation Protective Edge (July–August 2014) – Military offensive on the Gaza Strip as a response to the collapse of American-sponsored peace talks, attempts by rival Palestinian Arab factions to form a coalition government, the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, and increased rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas militants.[2]
• Syrian Civil War and the Iran–Israel conflict during the Syrian civil war.
• 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis or Operation Guardian of the Walls (May 2021) – There were riots between Jews and Arabs in Israeli cities. Also Hamas in Gaza sent military rockets into Israel and Iron Dome intercepted most dangerous rockets. Israel attacked targets in Gaza.
• October 2023 Gaza−Israel conflict (October 2023- )" Called Operation Iron Swords by Israel and Operation al-Aqsa Storm by Hamas.

Unlike the wars that Egypt, Syria, Jordan and a few other Arab states fought against Israel, the war that Hamas wages against Israel has remained unresolved in spite of a number of mini-wars between Hamas, and Hezbollah, against Israel. While Israel defeated Egypt in four major wars in 1948. 1956, 1967, 1973, and it defeated Jordan in two wars in 1948 and 1967, as well as defeating Syria in three wars in 1948, 1967, and 1973, these three countries were on some level brought to their senses and in the case of Egypt and Jordan they struck peace deals with Israel seeing the futility of waging conventional wars against the Jewish state. Syria was also dealt a reality check and has avoided waging war on Israel and has stuck with the ceasefire agreements that ended with their defeat by Israel in 1973.

On the other hand Hamas, that rules all of Gaza with an iron fist, and Hezbollah, that has South Lebanon in its iron grip, in spite of a number of wars and confrontations over the decades that they have been in power in their confrontations with Israel that has consistently ground them to halts, have never accepted the fact that Israel has always been victorious and have insisted on a policy of waging conventional and unconventional wars against Israel.

The key factor that keeps the war machines and engines of both Hamas and Hezbollah running on a never-give-up-mentality against Israel all the time in this game is that the militant hegemonistic Iranian regime eggs on both Hamas and Hezbollah by rearming and training them, giving them geopolitical, tactical and strategic support on every level, This is despite every defeat that Hamas and Hezbollah have suffered at the hands of the Israeli army in previous decades.

What Iran, Hamas and Heznbollah share in common is a powerful Islamic religious fanatical belief system that keeps their level of Jew-hatred and desires to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth boiling at top temperatures and running at high speed. This tidal force of Islamic negativity from the Dark Side keeps them going like Darth Vader in Star Wars against The Force of the good guys. They are motivated by hate which to them is like breathing air, the fire so to speak comes out of their nostrils.

How does one slay such a vicious rabid steaming dragon? It's not easy!

One way is to do to them what the United States did to the Japanese to end World War Two in 1945: Show them no mercy and inflict a devastating fatal defeat on them that they are forced to give up on pain of total annihilation! In other words deliver what is known in boxing as a knockout punch once and for all teaching them a lesson they will never forget!

There is another way, it's more subtle and more Jewish in some ways. You need to be a learned Jew to truly understand this problem. It all goes back to Torah roots of Esau's and Ishmael's hatred for the Children of Israel. In fact these peculiar Jew haters, the Muslims fundamentalists, view themselves as the true descendants of Abraham and deny the Children of Israel, today known as the Jewish People, their rightful place at the head of the Abrahamic religious table as it were. That is why they wage Jihad, "holy war" to drive the Jewish "infidels" ("unbelievers" ) out of "Palestine" that they view as a Muslim land occupied by the Jewish colonizers in their eyes.

For the Shiite Iranians and their Hamas and Hezbollah proxies its their own version of an Armageddon showdown against the Yahuds (Jews) following in the footsteps of Nazi Germany's "War Against the Jews", and it's their religious and nationalist ideology that drives them to want to eliminate the Jews and Israel because it stands in the way of their own vision of dominating the world via a grand global Jihad. They will fight to the death and rise again and again like a modern day evil Phoenix as they imagine in their fantasy that they will succeed in their goal. They don't care if they die in the process because to their way of religious Islamic "thinking" they are Shaheeds ("holy warriors'') who are going to go to heaven and be rewarded with plenty of virgins as a reward for killing and dying for Allah. That's why you can always hear them screaming "Allahu Akbar" or "God Is Great", in Hebrew that would be "Elokim Gibor" meaning "God Is Mighty"!

The only way to counter them according to classic Judaism is in the old-fashioned way, by doing Teshuva, Tefila, Tzedaka, as we say on the Jewish Holy Days of Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur Repentance (Return to the Jewish God), Prayer, and Charity remove the evil decree and to be the true Am HaKadosh, Holy Nation!

The way to stop the cycle of wars by Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and the other Jew-haters against the Jewish People is for the Jewish people to do teshiva, which means returning to God and the ways of the Jewish ancestors such as Mordechai and Esther in ancient Persia who led the Jewish People in exile to do do Teshuva and then victory over the ancient Persian Empire, and like the Maccabees, the few who defeated the many and mighty Greeks because they rededicated (that's what "Hanukkah" means) themselves to the true and pure way of worshipping God through study of the Torah and the doing of the Mitzvot correctly.

Then, and only then, will the Jewish People be able to defeat the powers of the dark side, be they Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and all the Jew haters of the world and thereby bring the Final Redemption to its completion.

Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin was born to Holocaust survivor parents in Israel, grew up in South Africa, and lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is an alumnus of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and of Teachers College–Columbia University. He heads the Jewish Professionals Institute dedicated to Jewish Adult Education and Outreach – Kiruv Rechokim. He was the Director of the Belzer Chasidim's Sinai Heritage Center of Manhattan 1988–1995, a Trustee of AJOP. 1994–1997 and founder of American Friends of South African Jewish Education 1995–2015. He is also a docent and tour guide at The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Downtown Manhattan, New York. He is the author of The Second World War and Jewish Education in America: The Fall and Rise of Orthodoxy.

Contact Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin at[email protected]"

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