Gaza War Diary: 18 JANUARY 2024
An article written by Dr. Michael Milstein and published today on Ynet English gives an in-depth analysis of how Israeli sympathy for the “poor Gazans” has taken an irreversible 180 degree turn. While before October 7, many Israelis and their political leaders believed that “the majority of Palestinians in Gaza are different from Hamas, which controls them through fear and oppression, and share a universal human longing for a good life…” leading to the “assumption that by improving their situation it would be possible to ensure security, stability and even bend the ideological fervor of Hamas.”
These beliefs were shattered on October 7. “Not only did the Gazan public not protest against Hamas following the attack, but thousands took an active part – publicly and without fear – in the massacres, kidnappings, rapes and lootings, including the theft of bodies as a sort of ‘appreciating asset,’ and of course participated in the victory celebrations that included abuse of the kidnapped and the bodies.”
Released hostages have added to this picture with their experiences at being tortured by women and children while held prisoner. Moreover, the discoveries made by IDF soldiers of the widespread weaponry, tunnel entrances, and hate material found in the average Gazan home, have been a factor in enlightening even the most resistant to reality.
Recently, the head of a soldier decapitated on October 7 was found by the IDF in a refrigerator in Gaza. According to the testimony of a Hamas prisoner, the head had been offered by Gazans for sale for $10,000. The IDF returned it to Israel for burial.
“The Israel Democracy Institute found in a survey conducted last month, that 40% of Israelis believed that the harm to the population in Gaza should have a limited bearing on Israel’s decisions and a similar percentage say it should have no bearing at all. Palestinian surveys conducted at the same time found that 72% to 75% of the Palestinians support the October 7 massacre, and about 70% support the armed struggle as the main means of confronting Israel.”
Let there be no mistake: this is a war between Israel and the Gazans. All of them. It is a war between Israel and the Palestinians, excluding Israeli Arabs. We shouldn’t be feeding them, employing them, minimizing harm to them, or providing them with electricity or shelter. Just as the average Berliner was a Nazi, the average Gazan and West Bank Palestinian, is Hamas-ISIS. They want us dead.
Dr. Milstein believes that we should nevertheless not dehumanize the Gazans: “This would undermine the moral foundations of Israel and its image in the eyes of the world.”
What we have to do then, is dispose of our illusions that anything we do can affect change in their morality, prejudice, savagery, and genocidal dreams. What we need to do is create a buffer zone between us and never, ever allow them to pass over it.
Despite the thinning of troops in Gaza, the IDF has scored numerous victories in the last day. Fighting in the southernmost part of Gaza so far reached against the Hamas Shuhada unit and its officers, dozens of terrorists have been killed, their offices raided, intelligence materials confiscated, along with armaments including rifles, RPGs, grenades, and digging equipment. University El Asri, so-called, will not be enlightening any more Hamas operatives on how to build bombs because the IDF today blew it to smithereens. If only our air force were able to take care of other bastions of higher learning / terrorist propaganda with such efficiency!
Also today, significant Hezbollah strongholds have been bombed; terrorists have been apprehended in Tul Karem. The work of our IDF goes on with resilience and determination despite the nagging of the nay-sayers at home and abroad. Biden, apparently, has given up pressuring Netanyahu and has decided to discuss the future of Gaza with … Saudi Arabia! Hopefully, he won’t be in office by then.
Once again, the families of the kidnapped have tried to block the passage of aid trucks going into Gaza. Among those at the border are also the families of fallen soldiers who gave their lives to win this war against Hamas. How long can our government cover its eyes and turn a deaf ear? I don’t know what kind of pressure our leaders are under, but this is absolutely insane, disgusting and outrageous. The next time the protestors go, I would love to join them. The army thwarts them by declaring the area where the trucks pass as a closed military zone.
Everyone in Israel should be there at the border trying to hold back the aid trucks to Hamas. Everyone.
