Ron Weiser reflects….

 Email this story

Print

3 Comments

Ten observations – some very obvious, but not necessarily to everyone and some which need to be continually repeated.

Dr Ron Weiser

1 – October 7th, Shemini Atzeret, as news slowly spread here in Australia, became the worst day I can recall in Israel’s history during my lifetime.
The sheer barbarism and depravity on full display.

2 – Understand Hamas.
Hamas was formed during the 1st Intifada, a Sunni Islamist fundamentalist genocidal offshoot of the Moslem Brotherhood, with the fanatical aim to destroy Israel and kill Jews.
Its original covenant in 1988 Article 7 says: “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews. When the Jew will hide behind stones and trees, the stones and trees will say, “O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
Understand Gaza.
Israel left Gaza in 2005.
It was up to the residents of Gaza to determine their own pathways and future.
In 2006, Hamas, with its anti-Jewish manifesto was elected by the residents of Gaza in its first and last democratic elections.
In 2007 Hamas violently took full control of Gaza and killed and expelled the Palestinian Authority.

3 – Israel uses weapons to protect her people – Hamas uses Palestinian people to protect their weapons.
Israel does not deliberately target civilians. Hamas does.

4 – We are not in 1982 nor in the early 2000s of the 2nd Intifada.
I have never seen such support for Israel and the Jewish People around the world. Never.
Led by President Biden, but also Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Chancellor Scholtz, President Macron and even the EU.
And yes, here in Australia, too, Prime Minister Albanese’s speech in Parliament was outstanding. As were numerous speeches from both the government and opposition – and also at state level.
With the qualification of Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s initial inappropriate untimely use of the “R” word – and the bastardisation of morality by the Greens.
The world has seen the true face of Hamas and their partners and sponsors and patrons. And needs to understand that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is caused by Hamas. Palestinian suffering is a Hamas aim.
The positivity about Israel and her moral mission to wipe Hamas out will have to end sometime, but to date it has been frankly amazing.
And for the first time, I want to believe, I dare to believe – may continue long enough as necessary.
Shutting down race hate, vilification, and incitement to violence is absolutely necessary – absolutely. However, it does not mean that local supporters of these atrocities now think anything differently than they have previously expressed publicly.

5 – There was a catastrophic failure of Israeli Intelligence, the IDF and the political leadership.
It will not happen again for a very long time.
Ironically, this Israeli government was elected on its promise to bring more effective personal security.
But time to deal with that later.

6 – Unity
Yossi Klein Halevi writing in the TOI says: “The paradox of this war is that, while the distrust and contempt for our leaders has never been higher, neither has our morale, our love of country, our readiness to sacrifice, even our ability to unite.
To win this war against evil requires steadiness and balance. Leftwing Jews need to understand that the Jewish people cannot afford the purity of powerlessness, while rightwing Jews need to understand that power requires moral limits. As a people, we must not be indifferent to the anguish of Gaza. And we must not allow that anguish to undermine our resolve to destroy Hamas.”
There are no leftists or rightists today. Just a determination to ensure the defence of Israel, of all her citizens and of the Jewish World.
President Biden was outstandingly clear earlier when he said “I think without Israel, there’s not a Jew in the world who’s secure. I think Israel is essential”
Iran and her proxies understand that they cannot defeat the IDF.
Therefore, they aim to destroy Israel’s secret weapon, the resilience of her population. That is why Hamas attacks Israel’s citizens.
Hamas has made a gross miscalculation.

Ron Weiser is the Honorary Life Member ZFA Executive and Honorary Life President, State Zionist Council of NSW

7 – Iron Dome is both a blessing and a drawback.
The fence is both a blessing and a drawback.
As Lazar Berman explains in the Times of Israel, Israel’s strategy used to be based on 3 principles – deterrence, early warning, and decisive battlefield victory (hachra’a).
Not building defensive shields. But rather, offensive powers to deter the enemy.
The Bar Lev line failed in 1973.
Now the Gaza fence, costing over US1.1 billion, has also failed.
Netanyahu did not start the change in policy weight to defensive measures – but he and the IDF will place greater emphasis on offensive measures in the time to come.

8 – Israeli Arabs – In May 2021 during Guardian of the Walls, there was terrible rioting and infighting in the mixed Israeli Jewish/Arab towns.
Very importantly, to date, we have not seen a repeat of that.

9 – We seek peace – we have been debating 1967 for 56 years.
Whilst we have been doing that, Hamas and her sponsors and the Palestinian Authority leadership too, do not be under any illusion, have been seeking to undo 1947.
This is the essential difference between the two sides.

10 – We are not back in the 1930s and ’40s
Today we have the State of Israel.
Today because of her, we stand tall here too.
We are the Jewish People. We made a choice.
Again, as Yossi Klein Halevi writes: “We are not engaged with the Palestinians in a competition for victimhood. The Palestinians will always win that competition, and rightly so. In opting for power, the Jewish people opted out of the victimhood competition. There is a price to pay for the loss of innocence. We have no choice but to own it.”