The calls for a ceasefire are deafening. When should Israel pull out of Gaza and let things return to normal?
Well, as with any conflict, part of the answer is dependent upon which side you are on.
For over a century now, the Israelis have only wanted one thing: a small but defensible country of their own, where their nation was born, over three thousand years ago. They have no desire to destroy other countries, no desire to make endless war or to conquer the world. The only military activity they have ever conducted since winning nationhood in 1948 has been defensive.
By contrast, the islamofascist element within islam that wants the destruction of Israel – a painfully difficult percentage to calculate, with estimates running from a tenth to a half of the global muslim population – believes above all in permanent, global jihad, through a continuous campaign for the establishment of a global caliphate, using money, public relations, elections, or the sword, separately or in unison as needed.
The current footprint of Israel includes three groups of muslims: those living within the regular voting population of Israel, those living in Judea and Samaria (which the press likes to call The West Bank so it doesn’t sound so Jewish) and those living in the Gaza Strip, which is currently at the top of the headlines.
Of the muslims living in the main part of Israel today, they have citizenship; they participate in elections, and in fact, they can and do serve in the Knesset, and occasionally as aldermen, mayors, and cabinet members. Some of them are likely a threat, but most are not; these are happy to be the only muslims in the Middle East with such privileges, overjoyed at their good fortune in having rights that muslims in most majority muslim nations don’t even dare dream of.
Of the muslims living in Judea and Samaria, we don’t know what percentage is a threat. Any estimate is a gamble. The most militant among them are always active, with global sponsors, but they have been largely contained, and do not seem inclined to take measures that would get their countrymen killed in large numbers, at least, not at the moment.
Gaza is the population in the headlines today, however, and that is the group of which we learn more every week since October 7. Just as the Gaza strip is the origin point of the October 7 attacks, it is the group under the microscope today. We see evidence pour in on a daily basis. While we must make wild guesses about the other groups, fairly or unfairly, we have clear evidence about Gaza, more and more every day.
Gaza’s population is the one specifically directed by the Shi’ite mullahs in Tehran. This Iranian backing puts them at odds with the majority of other muslim populations in the region, even other terrorists. That’s not necessarily to say it’s a good thing; maybe some others are just as bloodthirsty but prefer to play the long game, and the only difference is that the Tehran-backed groups are more impatient. It’s hard to tell.
What we do know for certain is that the concentration of currently active jihadist sympathizers in Gaza is far greater than we are used to seeing in other populations. The town-by-town and even house-by-house march, as Israel has painstakingly surveyed the Gaza strip since October, has revealed proof of 50% activist support in some areas, up to 100% in others. Hamas is turning out to be not the unwelcome dictators over their powerless neighbors that we’ve been encouraged to tell ourselves they were for 20 years. Rather, Hamas is clearly a popular organization with the full support of much of Gaza, happy to kill people, even their own, in the interest of the destruction of Israel and the pursuit of the worldwide caliphate.
We sometimes look at the population of a hostile government – the Germans under Hitler, the Japanese under Hirohito, the Italians under Mussolini – and we tell ourselves, perhaps through wishful thinking, that the real regular Germans, Japanese or Italians aren’t really into this either; that they’re victims as much as we are. Sometimes that’s true. But clearly not in this case.
And how could it be different, frankly? We are a product of our environment as much as our genes. The people of the Gaza strip have been raised from birth to hate the Jews, to hate the Christians, to hate outsiders. They have been fed the line that they are the world’s refuse, that the nations of the world have chosen them to suffer, so they are right to grow up with bitterness and hatred in their hearts. If this is what they are taught from birth in their madrassahs – and it is – it should be no surprise. Indoctrination works.
So today, months into the hot war between Israel and the self-governing den of vipers known as the Gaza Strip, we ask again. When will it end? When will Israel pull out and stop prosecuting this war?
To answer that, we need to explore our premises.
- If Israel pulls out and stops prosecuting this war, will Gaza do the same? Will Hamas stop fighting if Israel pulls out? Or will a “ceasefire” really just be an occasion of “Israel ceasing fire, and Hamas restarting?”
- Did this war start in October, 2023, or did it really start much earlier, and it’s only in October that Israel finally really started to fight back?
- Whose side are we on? Do we just want a pretense of peace, a veneer of a truce, so that our newspapers can stop covering the Middle East for a while and can spend those column inches on other things, or do we truly want there to be an end to all hostilities in Israel? Do we really care about these decades of the incessant killings of innocents in Israel by the demons of Hamas?
This is the problem. Here in the United States, being half a world away, we tend only to think of what we see in the headlines. Our headlines covered the October 7 attacks and the Israeli response since, so we expect an ending soon. But our discussions of a ceasefire are concerned with putting a bookend on the other side of October 7. We act – and think – as if October 7 started this problem.
It did not.
In fact, if Israel stops now, before the threat is eliminated, that threat will just return to the status quo of pre-October 7. And what was that status quo?
For generations now, the status quo has been one of constant one-sided attacks on Israel originating in Gaza. This did not end when Israel allowed the Gaza Strip to hold elections and become self governing almost twenty years go. In fact, it was exacerbated, because now Gaza has had the pretense of legitimacy as a refugee country in the eyes of the world community. Foreign countries, banks, charities and other NGOs have been able to pour countless billions of dollars in goods and funds into Gaza, as “humanitarian aid,” for distribution and use by Hamas.
Hamas has used this abundant flow of “humanitarian aid” not to help the people of Gaza, but to buy and build rockets to fire at Israel, to equip terrorist footsoldiers to attack Israel, and to build an incredible tunnel network (over 700 kilometers of tunnels so far in this tiny area, with more discovered every day) to house and facilitate their offensive operations.
So what would be the result of a ceasefire today, while Hamas and its homicidal maniacs are still standing? The threat would remain, and we would return to pre October 7 conditions.
Gaza would again be the source of periodic bus bombings, nightclub bombings, pizzeria bombings, public square bombings. Gaza would again be the source of periodic rocket attacks into random locations in Israel. Gaza would again be the source of thugs hiding behind walls, lobbing chunks of concrete into crowds, killing innocent pedestrians and bicyclists. Not every day, but frequently enough.
The terrorists of Gaza don’t care who they hit. They don’t care whether the people killed by bomb or rocket are Jews, Christians, or their fellow muslims. They don’t care whether the person killed by a concussion from a chunk of concrete was an Israeli or a foreign businessman or a tourist. They don’t care who they kill; they only care that they kill. They don’t even care if a retaliatory strike to a rocket launch site kills a family or a group of children. The killing is the goal, because every death they arrange contributes to the weakening of Israel as a nation, as a business center, as a tourist destination.
And ending this police action prematurely – through a negotiated peace or a ceasefire “forced” on Israel by the world community – would be exactly what it looks like: a capitulation to Gaza, an empowerment of Hamas.
What should be Israel’s goal here?
To save the money that this military action is costing? That’s no solution, because the pre-October 7 status quo produced the deaths of innocent Israelis and foreign tourists and businessmen, and Israel cannot afford a return to that.
To get on the good side of the world community? That’s not possible, because the world community has proven itself to be so anti-semitic – or at least anti-Israel, to the extent that such a distinction can be made – that the world community favors the homicidal demons of Hamas to the decent, productive, peaceful people of Israel. There is no way for Israel to get on the good side of the world community.
To preserve their friendships with other arab countries? That’s frankly not in jeopardy. Most other arab countries have always been fully aware of the nature of Gaza, and they oppose Iran as much as Israel does. While the other arab countries may not want to pursue a war against Iran themselves, many if not most are happy to see Israel standing up to Iran.
Frankly, Israel’s goal in all this should be exactly what it is on its face: removing the threat in Gaza so that we don’t return to the pre-October 7 status quo.
So, when should Israel agree to a ceasefire?
Only when Israel is certain that Gaza will stop attacking the innocent people of Israel. Until that certainty is ensured, one way or another, there is no moral reason for Israel to let up.
The obligation of the government of Israel is to the best interests of the people of Israel. Period.
Other governments – including our own – would be wise to acknowledge that their own obligations to their own people work that way as well.
Copyright 2024 John F. Di Leo
John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based international transportation and trade compliance professional and consultant. A onetime Milwaukee County Republican Party chairman, he has been writing a regular column for Illinois Review since 2009. His book on vote fraud (The Tales of Little Pavel) and his political satires on the current administration (Evening Soup with Basement Joe, Volumes I, II, and III), are available in either eBook or paperback, only on Amazon.
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