THE FATE OF SDEROT IS THE FATE OF TOULOUSE

Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry

Just as it’s impossible to separate the Hezbollah threat in the north from the Hamas threat in the south, there can be no distinction between the bullets that ended the lives of Jewish schoolchildren in France and the missiles fired on Beersheva – with no proper response forthcoming in either case.

The fallout from Israeli weakness in the recent round of terrorist violence was not long in coming. Last Monday, we saw the terrible pictures from Toulouse, France, where four Jews were murdered in cold blood, al Kiddush Hashem. Anyone who tries to disassociate Israel’s policy of surrender to Islamic terror from the arrogance of anti-Semitic terrorists throughout the world has no conception of what this conflict is all about. When you see the reality for what it is, you can’t help but connect the two. When the government of Israel demonstrates weakness, the international community interprets such passivity as a green light for further acts of murder and terrorism.

During the last period of actual hostilities, the IDF officially changed their tactics from offensive to defensive. The technological invention known as “Iron Dome” has left the Hamas terrorists comfortably in their command centers, enabling them to continue firing rockets on Eretz Yisroel, virtually without interruption. It almost seems that as long as the “Iron Dome” system intercepts and destroys the missiles, it poses no problem that the terrorists launch as many missiles as they want. Israeli policy has turned such an Islamic threat into a great disadvantage against its own people. They fire their missiles relentlessly, threatening the lives of millions of Jews living in southern Eretz Yisroel. Yet, instead of fighting fire with fire, we merely send the residents of the region to hide in bomb shelters, while we settle for the protection of an electronic system that stops the missiles in flight.

The recent barrage of terrorist missiles sends a clear message that they can fire their rockets on Eretz Yisroel without fear of reprisals. The IDF no longer operates as the strongest military force in the world, capable of protecting the Jewish People wherever they are and instilling fear among our enemies throughout the globe. Instead, it is an army that develops “Maginot Line”-styled technological systems to overcome rocket fire – after failing to stop it through more conventional methods during the past decade. The atmosphere that the IDF once created, arousing a sense of security for every Jew in the world, is slowly dissipating. Security has been replaced by vacillation and fear.

The direct connection between global terrorism and Israeli submissiveness is clear to anyone with eyes in his head. Yet, the Rebbe had already established this connection many years ago, explaining that capitulation to terrorists endangers the lives of millions of Jews throughout the world, not just in the Holy Land. He proved how yielding to Arab terror is not just the problem of the Jews living in Eretz Yisroel; it has an effect upon the personal security of Jews everywhere. This is the picture that we see today. There is a clear connection between the murderous terrorist shooting last week in France and the message of instability and lack of strength conveyed by the Israeli government in recent weeks. It leaves the impression that Jews can be randomly attacked, while we remain silently restrained as if we’re nothing more than cannon fodder.

REWRITING HISTORY

When Prime Minister Netanyahu stood at the Knesset rostrum two weeks ago to speak about the security situation in southern Eretz Yisroel, he had difficulty hiding his sense of embarrassment as opposition legislators persistently interrupted his prepared statement. This time, however, it wasn’t the nationalist Knesset Members reminding Bibi of his support for the Gush Katif expulsion, rather it was the Kadima Party MKs who were attacking him.

For his part, the prime minister has done everything in recent years to revise history and correct the error of his support for the expulsion plan. However, to his great regret, there is a sizable collection in the historical archives of Eretz Yisroel revealing again and again that he not only backed the Gaza “disengagement,” he even proudly declared during the Likud referendum seven years ago that he would support the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif.

To this very day, no Israeli prime minister or policymaker has really been able to accept the truth. Even the tremendous victories over Arab armies occurred despite the indifference of Israeli leaders, not because of their great ingenuity. So it was during the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War, when the political leadership in Eretz Yisroel preferred to demean itself in the face of the coming Arab onslaught. We were miraculously saved only in the merit of G-d’s great kindnesses.

Israeli leaders have continually failed to understand that victory means that even the opposing side realizes that you have won. Their perception of victory is merely defined by what the media calls success. Therefore, even after the Gush Katif expulsion, no one was compelled to pay the price, and there are still those who try to classify this horror story as a success – as bizarre as it sounds. As for those who promoted the disengagement plan, as long as the general public accepts the falsehood that it was all done in good faith, they will continue to consider it a success, telling us how essential the uprooting of the Gush Katif settlements was for our security.

A DISTORTED SENSE OF REALITY

Recent Israeli prime ministers have tried to make one outlandish declaration after another, proving that those entrusted with the security of the Jewish homeland don’t know how to read a map of the Middle East. Yitzchak Rabin declared that it was only those “cowards of peace” from the political right-wing who claimed that if we leave Gaza, the PLO will fire rockets from there. He carried out the first Oslo agreement, withdrew the IDF from the Gaza Strip, and for more than a decade since then, rocket fire from Gaza has been a standard ritual. Ariel Sharon proclaimed that if the Arabs fire just one missile from Gush Katif, the IDF will retaliate with uncompromising force. He carried out the brutal expulsion and disappeared from the scene soon afterwards. He thereby left us with the cities of southern Eretz Yisroel under constant bombardment, and without the ability to restore security to its residents. Ehud Olmert and his successor, Binyamin Netanyahu, supported the Gush Katif expulsion, claiming that it will improve the security situation. Each one in turn stood helpless against the growing missile threat.

To Olmert’s credit, he at least tried at the end of his term to take wide-scale military action to change the regional balance of power and crush the Hamas regime in Gaza. Government protocols recently made public show that it was Olmert who wanted to continue military activities and employ the IDF’s full power against the terrorist organizations. However, Defense Minister Ehud Barak forced him to pull back and eventually put a halt to the entire operation. It stands to reason that if the IDF had been allowed to conduct unrestrained warfare in Operation Cast Lead, thereby destroying the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, it would have taken much longer before we would have had to confront another missile threat.

Yet, even Olmert’s far-reaching ambitions were limited to occupying the Gaza Strip for a few weeks and then returning the territory to Hamas. No Israeli prime minister has yet to admit that there is only one way to stop the missile threat: the return of the Israel Defense Forces to Gaza and their complete control over the region. Thus far, the argument has been over whether there is a chance to restore Gaza to the control of the ‘Palestinian Authority’ or whether we have to accept the inevitability of Gaza remaining in the hands of Hamas – Iran’s proxy.

Time after time, we hear the claim that missiles were fired on southern cities even before the Gush Katif expulsion. However, people seem to forget that the army had left Gaza long before the expulsion. Ever since the Oslo Accords, proposed by Rabin and later implemented by Netanyahu, there has been no IDF presence in the Gaza Strip. After Gush Katif, the security situation has become progressively worse. Today, about half the country is within the range of Gaza rocket fire. Yet, we must remember that this deterioration started when the army left Gaza, and the terrorists subsequently began their unimpeded missile attacks on Israeli cities. While it was just Sderot at the outset, the terrorists now have sufficient freedom of movement to put every city in southern Eretz Yisroel on the alert.

WHO WILL RESTORE THE PUBLIC’S CONFIDENCE?

In preparation for a possible attack against Iran, many people are talking about the need to stand firm on the home front and for a greater sense of national strength. Yet, it remains unclear how Israeli leaders can demand that the public stand firm when they are unable to withstand even the slightest international pressure. A sizable majority of the ministers serving in the current government supported the Gush Katif expulsion. The prime minister and his defense minister proudly speak of their record of making numerous disgraceful concessions to terrorist organizations. They have both proven in the past that they don’t know how to stand firm against truly dangerous threats.

How can the defense minister demand strength from the citizens of Eretz Yisroel, when it was he who invented the concept of “restraint” in the face of rocket fire, i.e., learning to accept a good smack in the mouth from the terrorist organizations and then sit quietly? Can we actually rely upon someone who as prime minister achieved ‘victory’ in Lebanon through retreat and showed a weak sense of resolve against the second intifada? How can he possibly be the one to lead the battle against the Iranian threat and stand strong against world pressure?

Such questions must also be directed towards the conduct of the prime minister. It isn’t clear how Netanyahu expects to alter the balance of terror in the Middle East and adversely affect Iran’s ability to create a nuclear bomb when he continues to agonize over whether to crush the Hamas regime in Gaza and destroy its weapons stockpiles located just a few dozen miles from Israeli cities.

OUR ANSWER: LIGHT, MORE LIGHT

The horrific terrorist attack in France must serve as a warning signal for Israeli policymakers. If the country’s defense specialists are prepared to do the right thing, even at the price of their popularity, now is the time that they must stand firm against the terrorist organizations and demonstrate that anyone who harms the Jewish People will endure a painful lesson that they will not soon forget.

As long as the terrorist organizations persist in their arrogant behavior in Gaza, their members will continue to roam the world with great self-assurance, endangering the lives of millions of Jews worldwide. This is exactly what the Rebbe foresaw, and it is impossible to disassociate one from the other. Just as it’s impossible to separate the Hezbollah threat in the north from the Hamas threat in the south, there can be no distinction between the bullets that ended the lives of Jewish schoolchildren in France and the missiles fired on Beersheva – with no proper response forthcoming in either case.

“The measure of good is greater than the measure of punishment.” Thus, if terrorism makes no distinction between Sderot and Toulouse, our influence on the scene must also be intercontinental. In contrast to a position of surrender and submission, we must publicize the position of Torah, as brought in Shulchan Aruch, Sec. 329, stating the halachic obligation to go out against terrorists with weapons of war and strike them down.

By the same token, we must spread the encouraging message of the Rebbe. He promised that the time of Redemption has arrived and all the events occurring in the world today are signs of the Redemption – from the darkness at the end of the exile to the great light of Geula. We must bring the message of redemption and hope that Moshiach is on his way.

The Divine promise of Alm-ghty G-d that Eretz Yisroel is the safest place in the world, “a land in which the eyes of Hashem, your G-d, are upon it from the beginning of the year until the end of the year,” continues to accompany the entire Jewish People. As a result, we should all merit to see great miracles in the face of the present threats, which will surely be eliminated very soon. We have been entrusted with a most important shlichus to spread a message of light to repel the darkness. We must let every Jew know that these occurrences are all part of the process of Redemption, and all we have to do is open our eyes and see them in the light of Geula, until we come to the imminent hisgalus of Melech HaMoshiach, mamash, now!