Tunnel Vision?
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(As funny as this cartoon may be, residents living near Gaza are filled with stress and uncertainty, and their perseverance is a source of chizuk
for the rest of us)
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Just yesterday a major sophisticated tunnel built by Hamas terrorists, running from Gaza into Israel was exposed by the IDF. Was the tunnel's discovery due to the new top secret tunnel-detection technology now in service, or was it due to the defection of a Hamas tunnel engineer "spilling his guts" to the Israelis?
Either way, we can breathe a sigh of relief that this tunnel was discovered and destroyed, and of course hope that all of these terror tunnels suffer the same fate.
As encouraging as this event is, we have an uneasy feeling that this episode follows a disturbing pattern displayed by Israeli leadership. That is, a pattern of not fighting to win. There are numerous examples that this mindset has taken hold:
Why, if if costs only "X" thousands of dollars for Hamas to develop kassem rockets, must Israel spend tens of millions of dollars or more to develop a defensive solution against the relatively crude rockets of the enemy? Not to say that Iron Dome is not amazing, and ditto for the new anti-tunnel technology. But what happened to fighting to win, aka, demolishing the enemy? If the "Palestinian" Arabs build tunnels to kill Israeli civilians and capture IDF soldiers, why not invade Gaza and destroy whatever infrastructure needs to be destroyed to get rid of the problem?
Another example is the government's refusal to implement the Levy Report (and make it official policy), which investigated the legal status of Jewish communities in Yehuda and Shomron, and determined that Israel's presence there is not an occupation.
Still another example is the Israeli government's seemingly half-hearted effort to destroy illegal Arab buildings throughout Israel, but specifically in Area C of Yehuda and Shomron, which is under full Israeli jurisdiction.
We have asked these questions many times. Of course, pressure from the US and Europeans is unbearable at times, and Prime Minister Netanyahu is probably doing an incredible balancing act. However, Israel is in a region where strength is respected and hesitation and half-hearted measures are viewed with contempt and bemusement.
Israel is working 24/7 to avert terror threats and ensure security on all its borders, and it would be naive and irresponsible to think otherwise. However,
things just don't feel quite right. We would like to be proven wrong.
"The government is investing a fortune in thwarting the threat of tunnels. This is an ongoing effort; it does not end overnight; we are investing in it and will continue to invest steadily and firmly." - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
