VICTORY … FOR THE MOST PART!

By Simon Fischler

The Israeli military has finished Operation Pillar Cloud for now. As was to be expected Hamas, the rulers of the Gaza Strip, are claiming victory.

If one were to measure this Hamas victory against history it would be akin to France claiming victory against England in a battle that claimed the lives of Napoleon and all of the staff generals below him. Or France claiming victory after the Battle of Waterloo.

What were the real goals Israeli Prime Mister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Mister Ehud Barak and the IDF wanted to achieve for operation Pillar Cloud? To topple Hamas and occupy the Gaza Strip again? No, never!

From the beginning this was as simple as --first and foremost -- re-establishing the strength and deterrence of the IDF.

Secondly, showing another fascist, radical muslim group, Hamas, that the Israeli home-front was capable of standing up to attempts to scare it into submission; this time through the use of massive rockets coming out of The Gaza Strip.

Lastly  -- and almost as important as the first point -- was Israel’s leadership sending a very powerful warning message to three different nations: 1. The United States;  2. Egypt;  3. Turkey.

For America it was simple: do not forget who your true allies in this region are. Do not behave as if you do not have time to for Israel and be prepared for Israel to defend itself when its interests are put in jeopardy (i.e. Iran)… whether you like it or not!

For Egypt and Turkey it was also simple: you will have to deal with Israel and deal with her on an equal level; do not make the mistake of thinking Israel will  go back to the days of Gamal Abdel Nassar; be aware that she most certainly will not allow Hamas to become a proxy for Egypt and Turkey as Hezbollah is for Iran!

So did Israel and the IDF achieve the goals that were set forward? Yes.

It achieved most of these goals in the first minutes of the operation with the execution of Ahmed al-Jabari and the destruction of all of Hamas’ Fajr-5 missiles. 

The IDF killing Jabari was no different then the IDF killing Imad Mughniyah or Ali "The Red Prince" Hassan Salameh! The message here is very simple, we may not be able to bring our soldiers back from the dead, but we will kill those who are responsible for their pain who intend on hurting our nation. Bank on it, we will go to the four corners of the world; or the Gaza Strip to get it done!  

By the middle of the war both Hamas and Islamic Jihad were begging the Arab world for supplies to continue the fight against the Zionists. Both tried as well to get their Arab brethren to invoke the oil card and start another embargo, but failed to convince their faithful friends.

Two days before the end of the war Khaled Meshal said on live television that he did not want an IDF ground invasion! 

The fact that the leader of Hamas came out and said he wanted to avoid an Israeli ground invasion is most incredible. At least Nasrallah waited to the end of the 2006 war to say that if he knew that Israel would hit back so hard he would not have ordered the operation that led to the kidnapping of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

Under intense pressure from the United States (apparently Obama was not too busy for Israel after all) the Muslim Brotherhood-led Egyptian government negotiated a cease-fire with the “Zionist” leaders of Israel to help Meshal avoid that IDF ground incursion he was so afraid of.

Lastly, Israel prevented Turkey and its anti-Semitic Prime Minister Erdogan from being a part of the cease-fire talks, and all credit went to Egypt. This was a major victory and Erdogan is still getting screamed on by the Obama administration, to the point where Turkey has re-opened negotiations to the end the rift between Israel and Turkey. 

What the Israeli public must remember is that this war against Hamas and the Palestinians in general is similar to England’s position in World War II. Winning it takes looking at things from a long-term perspective, like chess.

Israelis must also remember that no matter what, if Khaled Meshal and Ismail Haniyeh were the last two Hamas fighters left in the Gaza Strip, hunkered down in a bunker, with one bullet left, in one pistol, they would still claim success.

Oslo is dead and our leaders are playing a long-term war strategy that will continue to give us the upper-hand and eventually lead Israel to victory. The politicians who are still trying to sell Oslo to the Israeli public are like Neville Chamberlin trying to resell the English the Munich agreement in 1940!

Those who continue to claim that Israel cannot achieve peace through military and then political might, should take a tour back in recent history, to the US victory over Japan in WWII. From the outset of America’s involvement in the War, and with much thanks to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the US made it clear she would only accept an UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER OF JAPAN! 

In immediate history one just needs to look at how the Sri Lankan government or the Columbian Government broke the backs of the Terrorists they were fighting! 

This is what Israel needs to bring about complete peace to its people!