Last Night of Chanukah,or: Oferet Yetzukah

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I wish I had seen this when Chanukah began. Now it will only be up for a day and a half, as I am writing this at 4:40 p.m. my time, the end of the seventh day of Chanukah.
Our radio is set to automatically turn on every day, including Shabbat. We heard first the BBC and then at 6:30 a.m. the NPR report about Operation Oferet Yetzukah*, that the IDF launched a massive air strike into Gaza. It's about time.

I am tired of the negative, accusatory questions posed to Israeli representatives, such as 'why is Israel launching an aggresive strike, why isn't Israel concerned about civilian casualties, how will Israel answer world condemnation,' and blah, blah, blah. It makes me sick.

The responsibility for the so-called Palestinians (anyone living in the region before the State of Israel was also a Palestinian, Jews included; there is no "Arab" state called Palestine, never has been, and such a state should NOT be created) in Gaza is Hamas', and nobody questions them with the questions they pose to Israel: it's time the world condemned the Arabs for building underground launching pads in residential areas, for locating terrorist cells in residential areas, and for basically not giving a damn about their own people.

Israel did a complete (and I might add, a terrible) "disengagement" of all it's citizens from Gaza in the summer of 2005 in an effort--misplaced and naive, as one can see from the results--to offer Gaza to the Arabs in exchange for 'peace.' The Arabs had a grand opportunity to show the world that they can create the infrastructure for a state of their own. So what did they do? They turned it into a cesspool. Typical. As the saying goes, "the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."

Let's face facts: the Arabs are not interested in creating a state or caring for their own people. Their only agenda is hatred of and destruction of Israel and Jews. It's time the world saw this.

From Israel National News:

President Shimon Peres said in a statement released to the media Sunday that it is time for the world to understand that Israel has been more than patient in waiting for the people of Gaza to come to their senses.

Detailing all the agony and subsequent fallout of the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza, Peres said, "The story is simple. Israel has left Gaza completely… The passages were open. Money was sent to Gaza. We suggested aid in many ways – economically, medically and otherwise… Still I have not heard until now a single person who could explain to us reasonably: why are they firing rockets against Israel?"

How long is Israel supposed to bend over backwards to appease these people at it's own expense? Where is the world's outrage at the unprovoked rocket attacks fired randomly at civilians? When was the last time Hamas 'warned' the Israeli residents of Sderot that there was going to be a rocket attack and all civilians should take shelter, huh?

Funny (as Atlas Shrugs puts it) how the media paid no attention when Hamas fired scores of rockets into Israel. But when Israel finally says "enough," boy do they get mad.

And of course, the reaction you get in the Arab world, is this. When they raise their pre-school children to hate Israel and to want to grow up to be suicide bombers, what else can you expect? But you get more or less the same anti-Semitic reaction in the non-Arab world as well, except for the United States. Tzipi Livni was pretty strong on Meet the Press this morning, even with slightly antagonistic questioning.

I've said this before, and by gosh I'll say it again until one of us is driven crazy: the IDF is one of the most humanitarian armies in the world. Read what Danny has to say about it, here. And on the blog Atlas Shrugs there is an article about the Israelis showing the world once again their humanity, by treating sick Gazans as well as Jews. What do the Muslims do? They brutally mutilate their hostages (I'm still in shock at this report; I only know what I read on Atlas Shrugs and elsewhere) and commit unspeakable atrocities on their neighbors (Jewish) as in the 1929 Hebron massacre.

I am enraged. How dare the world condemn Israel for defending itself, while turning a blind eye to aggression against it?

It is quite fitting that Israel deliberately surprise-attacked Gaza on Shabbat Chanukah, when Hamas least expected it. You might say it is a kind of retaliation for the surprise Arab attack on Israel in the Yom Kippur war in 1973. I guess they were really upset then by their humiliated defeat in the Six-Day War of 1967--which (p.s. ) they started, as they did all the wars since the inception of the state.

(I apologize in advance for the choir.) Chag Urim Sameach.



*Oferet Yetzukah = "Cast Lead," the name of the military operation (part of a well-known Chanukah song that Israeli kids learn).