Endless War Against Israel

Endless War Against Israel

By Therese Zrihen-Dvir

On Saturday, in the middle of the night, a truce was finally concluded between the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip and Israel, under the White House tenant’s suffocating dome. Israel indeed succeeded in hammering up the Islamic Jihad, but was that the fundamental objective? Or, at least, was it as anticipated by all Israelis — mostly from the country’s southern area?

No.

The real objective was to annihilate, to wipe it out without any possibility of remission because in the end, damaged or not, Islamic Jihad will perpetuate its harmful and murderous activities against Israel, assisted by all those who support it and enable it to return triumphantly to the scene of the so-called Palestinian conflict.

So, this morning, Israelis feel very uncomfortable. Some claim they have been fooled, others, with sad looks on their faces, uttered that this was predictable and that it was certainly not going to change even with the right-right government.

The majority raised the disturbing question: If Israel cannot dismember Islamic Jihad, an insignificant terrorist party compared to Hamas, will it be able to defeat the latter, which is much better prepared, organized, and equipped with a great arsenal and a large human contingent?

It is also true that the Israeli army, during this operation, proved to the entire world — friends and enemies alike — its organizational skills, the faith and loyalty of its citizens, the effectiveness of its advanced weapons, and its ability not to harm Palestinian civilians…unlike all the Western powers while facing military challenges of this caliber. And unlike the Palestinian terrorists of all stripes who shamelessly target Israeli civilians intending to kill them.

I still see before my very eyes the features of that Islamic Jihad monster, who in 2004 shot a pregnant woman and her four daughters in the back seat of their car at close range. None survived.

But let’s leave aside the compliments and the undeniable admiration we feel towards the Israeli army’s prowess, and make a concrete analysis of Israel’s calamitous retreat, without having achieved a glittering victory, without having defeated the enemy once and for all.

The bitter taste that results from this situation emerged from the fact that Israel avoids prolonged military excursions due to a fear of getting bogged down in a military ground confrontation that would cost a lot of human lives, especially soldiers. This aspect apparently forces Israel to make a hasty exit before an unforeseen accident changes the situation and throws her into the international arena — in this case, the United Nations and the United States.

And therefore, Israel will enjoy a temporary truce with a tenacious enemy that will certainly not fail to infiltrate its daily life both within Israel and in the so-called Palestinian territories, where there are nests of volunteers for a full-scale slaughter of Jews.

To see whether Islamic Jihad abides by the truce (which it has already broken), let us rendezvous in six months, a year, or even just a few days, when Israel celebrates its reconquest of Jerusalem with its provocative nationalist Flag March on Thursday.