By J. Zel Lurie
DELRAY BEACH, Florida –Many weeks ago, J.J. Goldberg published a column in the Forward which accused Bibi Netanyahu of allowing the public to pray and agitate for 18 days for the return of the kidnapped boys while he knew that the boys had been murdered.
According to Goldberg, the Israeli and Palestinian security services working together closely and efficiently had found the torched automobile that the kidnappers had used. The automobile had eight bullet holes and the DNA of one of the boys was identified. The two perpetrators were named, but not the fact that the automobile had been found. The homes of the two men in the end were demolished. The men have not been found, and most probably left the country.
The two men were members of a Hamas cell in Hebron, a large city in the West Bank. Netanyahu, according to Goldberg, issued a gag order preventing the publication of the fact that the boys had been murdered. He used the 18 days of uncertainty to lock down the Muslim population of Hebron. Thousands of homes were searched in looking for the boys, and hundreds of Hamas members arrested and are still in detention.
This according to many Israeli observers was a prime example of collective punishment.
The bodies were found and buried. But the 18 days of turmoil had its effect, and right-wing ministers led by Naftali Bennett demanded that Hamas be rooted out in Gaza.
Netanyahu opposed escalating to war with Hamas. But Hamas would not let him off the hook. Hamas’ patrols, which had reduced the number of rockets fired by fringe groups, were canceled and Hamas joined in the barrage. They fired GRAD rockets which reached the vicinity of Ben Gurion Airport and caused the cancellation of all international flights except for El Al for two days. They demanded release of the hundreds of Hamas members in Hebron.
Hamas wanted war. War and the expected international brokered cease-fire was their only chance of emerging from the terrible bind that they were in since their mentor Muhammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt, was overthrown. They were completely isolated and broke. They could not pay the salaries of 40,000 civil servants, including teachers and police. Israeli sanctions reduced the supply of electricity to eight hours a day. Sewage pumps went dry. 1.7 million Gazans went hungry.
Hamas was well prepared for war. It would not be a walk-in like the Israeli invasion of 2012. Their small army was well-trained. They had antitank missiles and most important, they had a large group of tunnels, leading into Israel which were completely unknown to the Israelis.
The plan was for a sudden attack by Hezbullah in the north while Hamas sent a small army through the tunnels to slaughter Israeli civilians in the south.
But Hezbullah’s army was diverted to Damascus and the plan was abandoned.
So, Israel went to war and discovered how close they had been to disaster.
As this was being written. the war was raging. 43 Israeli soldiers and 870 Gazans, most of them civilians, had been killed. Over 150 were children.
CAMERA has been heard from. The majority of the civilians were under 45. Therefore, they could have been combatants. Bullshit. A soldier is a soldier, commonly known as a militant.
Although the war is ongoing, some ministers are talking about a commission of inquiry after the cease-fire. The commission will reveal Bibi’s deceit for 18 days, but chiefly it will investigate Israel’s intelligence failure with regard to the tunnels. Did the Israeli army know about the tunnels going into Israel? If they did, was the political echelon informed?
Brokering a cease-fire is complex as Secretary of State John Kerry is finding. Hamas is demanding a concession and Israel is resisting. However, eventually some compromise will be adopted. Meanwhile, israeli soldiers and Gaza children are dying.
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Lurie, now 100 years old, is a freelance writer based in Delray Beach, Florida.
To the editor
Mr Lurie, Mr Goldberg, and other opponents of Israel are using the fact that bullets and DNA were found in the car as evidence that Israel imposed a search on the Palestinians with the knowledge the boys were dead. No where in this article is it stated that the boys could have been wounded, even though Mr Lurie is well aware of the possibility. Had the boys had been kidnapped at the Mexican border, the US would search until the bodies could be found,confirming the deaths. Mr Lurie dishonors the memory of the boys in his effort to smear Israel and exhonorate Hamas. Thus, Mr Lurie has provided material support to Hamas
This is a superb example of Jewish self Hatred mixed with loony fantasies and completely fabricated “facts”.
From day 1 of the kidnap, it was officially publicized that the burnt car had been found, with a variety of findings that tie it to the fact that the three kids (or some of them) had been shot at.
One who libels the Jews with playing with the death of these three pure and inspiring kids, is either malevolently fantasizing or is mentally ill.
Then, goes this article, to equate “Bibi” and Hamas. Hamas is a totally unrepented terror organization. It does not look for a “concession” that Israel’s well-known intransigence denies, it is committed – officially, openly and unequivocally, in its founding covenant, to destroying Israel and to murdering Jews. Murdering, world over, not merely in the Land of Israel.