Missiles don’t win wars

“The next war will reach Tel Aviv,” senior IDF officers keep on warning. Too bad they are doing it, as this constitutes a false and even damaging way of presenting reality.

Our enemies are arming themselves with missiles all around us. This is not a new phenomenon, yet today they are making an ostentatious use of it, as a type of ongoing and vulgar terror, mostly for reasons of propaganda, deterrence, and weakening our public – without launching even one missile. More than these missiles are designed to be used, they aim to provoke and showcase.

These missiles are a crime against humanity in every way, as they are being directed only at Israeli civilians. And if we heard talk of an apparent Israeli failure to comply with the rules of war, what we see here is a complete and blatant violation that we would do well to slam and weaken through international institutions, if possible.

These days, the potential missiles are aimed at weakening Israel, just like the international reports against it. In fact, they are premised on each other: The missiles are gaining strength as result of the reports against Israel, and the reports are being drafted thanks to the missiles. A true symbiosis of coexistence.

The military capabilities of Syria and Iran and of organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah are not highly developed. Their armies are outdated, the morale of their soldiers isn’t high, and they face a chronic shortage of money. Precisely for these reasons they arm themselves with missiles, because then there is seemingly no need for tanks or advanced aircraft.

Missiles are especially useful in order to scare civilians and draw media attention. Iranian missiles always make for good photos, and if not, the Iranians will make sure to fix this using Photoshop.

Missiles don’t win wars

The missiles are the refuge of the lazy, as that way there is no need to make an effort and the war can be managed by remote control. However, and this is important, missiles cannot decide wars. They are scary and they make for good photos, but no war has been decided only by missiles – not the Iran-Iraq war, not the Gulf Wars, and not Israel’s wars against her enemies. This is something we must understand and keep in mind.

Wars are decided by tanks, airplanes, and soldiers, not by missiles, regardless of how dangerous they are. Our enemies also know this apparently.

Hence, when we hear talk of the next war taking place in Gaza and also in Tel Aviv, this distorts reality. There will been no Palestinian tanks in the streets of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. We may see missiles fired at central Israel, yet even this isn’t certain. Hamas is currently well familiar with the price it will pay should it dare to attack the center of the country and heart of the state. It knows that in such case it will simply be eliminated.

Therefore, to revert to (and during the Holy Days no less) the scaremongering campaign about the next war taking place in central Israel is wrong and unhelpful. It merely reinforces the psychological warfare utilized by our enemies, who are happy to see such declarations. Israel must keep in mind that in recent years it has been facing a broad propaganda campaign, and that isn’t new either, yet in recent years some of us have been buying into the threats.

Israel should not be scared by the threats of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. At this time, Israel is much stronger and has much greater deterrent power than the psychological terror and propaganda we hear everywhere. The launching of rockets and missiles is the refuge of the coward, who fears for his life, fears war and a head-on clash, and manages his struggle from the darkness, from within backyards and civilian homes, and amidst women and children.