Yesterday, on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, a day when Israel was caught off guard but a massive intelligence failure, I wrote about how Israeli parents must worry about their children going off to war.
Today, it has happened.
A massive intelligence failure led to a unprecedented attack, and the army is calling up their reservists.
Jews around the world were awoken this morning, on Shabbat and Shmini Atzeret, with news that Hamas had managed to pull off an enormous operation within Israel proper. The details are still unclear, but at the time of writing, there is news of Hamas militants going door-to-door in communities around Gaza executing and kidnapping Israelis. There is word of rape, though not yet confirmed. They have taken scores of Israeli children, teenagers, women, men, and elderly, including soldiers, into Gaza as hostages. What they are going to do with them, is anyone’s guess. Hostages are being held in kibbutzim, and provocation is rising in the West Bank.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have launched over 4,000 rockets into Israel, dropped a bomb on an Israeli ambulance, and have opened up the doors to hell in Israel’s south. As of this moment, over 100 Israelis are reported dead. That number will certainly rise.
Netanyahu has declared that this is a war. It is. And I hope that Israelis fight like hell to avenge their dead, wounded, and kidnapped, and eliminate the the scourge of Hamas.
There will be plenty of time for hand-wringing. There is no doubt that this is already a massive victory for Hamas. There will be no shortage of aspersions cast on Israel’s political, intelligence, and military leadership. No doubt, a commission months from now will highlight the failures that allowed this to happen.
But right now is a time for solidarity. We have seen what Palestinian radicalism has done. This is not a time for moral equivocating, calling for proportionate attacks, or considering what would happen if this happened in other democracies. It happened, we are in the midst of it, and Israel must respond swiftly and decisively. Arguably, Israel has never seen anything like this in the past.
We have a moral obligation in the Diaspora to support Israel.
We have a duty to be radical in our support for Israel.
We must not equivocate, we must not surrender, we must not allow those seeking to “both sides” an issue to win.
This was a slaughter of innocents, and a dark day in Israeli and Jewish history.
May God bless the memories of those who have perished, may God protect those who have been kidnapped, may God delivery a swift victory to the IDF and Israel, and may God bring peace to us all.
Am Yisrael Chai