Bennett’s disservice to Gaza border residents
Op-ed: Instead of holding a serious cabinet discussion on diplomatic, economic and military moves to change the reality in Gaza, the ministers flexed their muscles in front of the microphones. The education minister went as far as suggesting that the IDF shoot every child flying a kite. Children’s funerals in Gaza, Bennett believes, will bring peace to the Gaza vicinity communities.
The dispute is over the cost—the price Gaza should pay for burned fields or a destroyed border fence, and the price Israel should pay for killed jihadist and for rioters shot on the fence.
In a Turkish bazaar, the seller tells the buyer: You set the price. No, the buyer tells the seller, you set the price. In the Gaza bazaar, each side wants to determine the last price.
This is a controlled war. The question of what shouldn’t be done is as important as the question of what should be done. Hamas made sure to launch its rockets at communities adjacent to the fence, and only at dawn. It could have launched rockets at Netivot, Ofakim, Be’er Sheva and Rishon Lezion, but it preferred to hold its fire there.
The IDF made sure to attack abandoned Hamas posts. The government compound in the hear of Gaza, the symbol of Hamas’ rule, wasn’t attacked. No targeted assassinations were carried out.
Israel believes Hamas isn’t interested in a war. It contains a huge risk and no profit. Hamas believes Israel isn’t interested in war. It’s busy with the Syrian front, with building the obstacle in the Gaza vicinity, and is afraid of ruining the World Cup for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But both sides are subject to internal pressure: Hamas doesn’t want to be seen as a collaborator; the Israeli politicians don’t want to be seen as helpless. The kites are negatively affecting their personal dignity. As a result of this internal pressure, the IDF started shooting incendiary balloon and kite launchers. As far as Hamas was concerned, it was a one-sided change of the cost. It responded accordingly.
Instead of holding a serious cabinet discussion on diplomatic, economic and military moves to change the reality in Gaza, the ministers flexed their muscles in front of the microphones. Education Minister Naftali Bennett went as far as suggesting that the IDF shoot every child flying a kite. Children’s funerals in Gaza, he believes, will bring peace to the Gaza vicinity communities.
In honor of Bennett’s concern for the Gaza vicinity’s residents, I went back to Krylov’s Fables, which were translated to Hebrew by Hanania Reichman with Nachum Gutman’s wonderful illustrations.
Krylov has a few fables which Bennett can be likened to. One of them tells the story of a hermit and a bear who became friends. One day, the two went for a walk in the woods. The man got tired. “Lie down, rest,” the bear said to him. “I will guard you from all enemies.”
And then the drama began. The bear took to driving flies away from his friend’s face, but one of the flies kept returning to attack the hermit’s nose. “Now I shall have you, most definitely,” said the bear, grabbing a stone and giving the man a violent blow on the face. He successfully hit his target, leaving his friend to lie there forever.
