It’s a classical case of Catch 22, Israeli style. It’s the reason why the hostages are still hostages and the war has not ended. It’s why Israel can’t reach its objectives—again. This war started because of a lack of Arab humanity, and continues because of excessive Jewish humanity. Hamas not only knows this, they bank on it.
Or excessive fear of world opinion. World War II ended because the Americans dropped bombs on civilian targets. If the US and Russia had ever gone to war against each other, you can be sure that both would target civilians, and the civilians of the targeters would have no problem with it.
The Arabs can attack Israeli civilians, including the elderly and babies, torture them, emasculate them, burn them to death, gang rape women, and all the head of the UN can say is, “Well, it doesn’t happen in a vacuum.” But should the Israelis kill Arab citizens after warning them to leave and they stayed to remain human shields, the Israelis are called inhumane murderers.
War after war we want our cake and to eat it too, winning it and coming out looking as fair and humane as possible. Instead we end up leaving with many Jewish deaths, even more injured, and our military tail between our legs. This war occurred now because we never completely finished the previous one, or the one before that, or the one before that, etc.
And despite all of our sacrifices to tip toe through war, the people who hated us continued to hate us, and even more. We not only never please everyone, we barely ever please anyone, including and really especially ourselves. We no sooner turn our backs on Hamas to return home and they are already rearming and preparing for the next battle.
Of course we have to be concerned about our allies, specifically America. Now, more than ever, the American government has many anti-Semites within it circling, waiting for a chance to take down Israel either directly, or by taking down its American supporters. Backlash for the Americans, we have been told in no uncertain terms, is backlash for the Israelis.
Even worse this time is the issue of the hostages. It’s like adding additional rope to further tie already tied hands because, other than having to factor their rescue into our battle plans, we have to also consider their relatives fighting for their release, mostly against their own government. Hamas has successfully turned many of their own enemies into enemies of their enemies. You can hear the celebration from hundreds of miles away.
No one in their right mind today would call for the bombing of Palestinian citizens, even if they do so in private…even if it is morally justifiable…even if it is morally responsible. It would be and has been political suicide, and in some cases, it can result in actual physical danger. So, to please people we can never please no matter what we do, we follow their lead and pay our own price.
It is demoralizing, especially if you’re an Israeli soldier who feels like he fought for nothing, and even more so for families who may have lost relatives in battle. It’s one thing to fail at a task you did everything you could to succeed at, and something altogether different to fail because you were denied the opportunity to give it your best.
But all of this is only true for the person who doesn’t know or relate to the bigger picture. If this war was just another in the life of the Israeli nation, then it is difficult not to get down about it. If a person only defines victory in military terms, then they’ll have to learn to live with defeat and worry about the future.
But if a person understands that the Jewish people, and the world in general, is headed in the direction of the final redemption, and that every outcome contributes to it, then victory can be snatched away from the teeth of defeat. The final redemption is coming, and no one can stop it, not even our worst enemies.
Ultimately, there is no Catch 22, because whatever God wanted to happen for the sake of redemption happened, and is still happening, even if our goals were not met. The only goals that ever count are God’s, and He never falls short of any victory He has planned. Even the frustration we go through is all part of that road to redemption.
In fact, all that frustration is actually necessary because it softens us toward turning to God for help. It helps us to realize that we can no longer, if we ever could, count on the world to help us protect ourselves from the forces of evil. Divine Providence has made a point of having evil, one form or another, infiltrate all aspects of society and levels of government, so that we will have no one else to turn to but Him.
Yishmael…Yishma—Kel, “God will hear,” because He is making sure that we speak up. And that’s a good thing.