Fighting without silver bullets by Caroline Glick

...There are no silver bullets. The price of freedom is hard work and vigilance. Only if we act in full cognizance of the gravity of the moment and the absence of easy answers will we navigate the minefield we find ourselves in successfully and restore the safety of the south, the north, the east and the center of the country.

Caroline Glick..
Our World/JPost..
05 August '14..

Hours before Israel accepted the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire deal on Monday night, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu traveled to the south to try to allay the fears of area residents.

It’s not at all clear how successful he was.

Residents of the communities bordering the Gaza Strip who evacuated their homes are skeptical of the IDF’s claims that it is safe for them to return.

In an interview with NRG website, Yael Paz-Lahiany, a mother of three young children from Kibbutz Nahal Oz just across the border from Gaza professed profound confusion and concern.

“I really don’t understand what is happening here and don’t know what to think. Just on Saturday we had 10 red alerts at Nahal Oz and I don’t know what to say. I also don’t understand what the prime minister said [Saturday].

I just know that I am staying at Kibbutz Dorot, and here too they are operating on emergency footing, the nurseries are only partially open, and no one is going back to normal. So if 10 kilometers from Gaza they haven’t returned to their routine, how are we supposed to go back to our lives 800 meters from the wire?” Israel’s operations in Gaza so far have been based on the hope that Hamas can be convinced to stand down.

Israel has destroyed its tunnels. The IDF killed hundreds of Hamas terrorists. The IDF destroyed Hamas’s bases.

Hamas’s missile arsenal is depleted. Its leaders are safe only so long as they remain hidden in their illegal bunkers under Shifa hospital. Hamas remains cash strapped and without access to resupply from Iran or other allies.

Assuming that Hamas maintains the 72-hour ceasefire that it requested, in negotiations that may ensue for a more detailed cease-fire agreement if the US is unable to coerce Israel and Egypt into agreeing to open the borders and save Hamas, Hamas will be destroyed through attrition.

If this happens, Israel will have won a great victory.

But if Hamas continues to attack southern communities at any level Israel will have no choice. It will have to send its forces back into Gaza with the mission of retaking control there.

There is only one thing worse than reasserting Israel’s military control over Gaza: Losing southern Israel. So long as residents of the south fear returning to their homes, Israel is losing southern Israel.

This looming prospect of having to retake Gaza would be bad enough if Israel only had to concern itself with Gaza. But Israel enjoys no such luxury.

[English adds critical word by mistake] PM Netanyahu welcomes the invitation of the United States to begin direct negotiations without preconditions.

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
22 August '10

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

While the English translation of the announcement has PM Netanyahu saying that the desire is to reach a peace agreement "that will protect Israel's national security interests, foremost of which is security" (see below) the original Hebrew message reads "that will protect Israel's national interests, foremost of which is security."
www.pmo.gov.il/PMO/Communication/Spokesman/2010/08/spokedirect200810.htm

The addition of the word "security" to "national interests" in the English translation was an honest mistake, but is important to correct.

Israel's "national interests" go well beyond security.

Israel has a "national interest", for example, that for generations to come, Jews will continue to be able to pray at ancient sites sacred to Judaism in places such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron. And this while taking into account that historically, Moslems consider it blasphemy for Jews to pray at these ancient sites that have been adopted by Islam, and that no matter what "iron clad" guarantees of access one might put on paper - should a foreign sovereign control these sites, there is, realistically, no way to insure that those "iron clad" guarantees don't rust out over time.

Put simply, if the IDF had a special gizmo that could satisfactorily protect Israel's national security interests with Israel finding itself on the '67 lines - including the complete division of Jerusalem, Israel still would have national interests to address on the other side of that line.]

PM Netanyahu welcomes the invitation of the United States to begin direct negotiations without preconditions.
20/08/2010
www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/Spokesman/2010/08/spokedirect200810.htm

Prime Minister Netanyahu welcomes the invitation of the United States to begin direct negotiations without preconditions.

The Prime Minister has been calling for direct negotiations for the past year and a half. He was pleased with the American clarification that the talks would be without preconditions.

The Prime Minister added that Israel wants to conduct serious and comprehensive talks.

"Reaching an agreement is a difficult challenge but is possible. We are coming to the talks with a genuine desire to reach a peace agreement between the two peoples that will protect Israel's national security interests, foremost of which is security." [AL: Should read "national interests"]

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