During the past year, Israel has experienced innumerable painful events. Many of our heroic soldiers have fallen in the defense of our country. We feel for their families and pray that they should not experience any more losses but only happy events.
It is, of course, no consolation for the loss of our soldiers that the IDF assassinated Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas and architect of the October 7 massacre. While the elimination of the leader of Hamas was a long-standing aim of the IDF, it will not be the cause of the war’s end but rather the beginning of the end in Gaza. Hopefully, it will also be a step closer to finding all the hostages and thus put an end to the countless demonstrations that achieve nothing but create costly traffic disruption. Israelis pray for the return of the hostages, but do these demonstrators not realize that they are being used as puppets by anarchists and provocateurs to topple the government? This is Israel, where everyone has a different opinion about how the war should be conducted. However, it is counterproductive to their cause to express it through violent action and opposition to the police who are fulfilling their task of protecting the interests of the population at large.
The current political climate
I am neither a general nor a professional strategist. I was, however, a participant in the task of the de-Nazification of Germany immediately after May 7, 1945, the day of Germany’s unconditional surrender. It is on that experience that I base my suggestion for “the day after” in Gaza.
Firstly, the total area must be brought under Israeli military authority to begin the systematic political screening of all personnel engaged in any administrative or security position. That may take up to one year. Ideally, that should lead to a declaration of sovereignty, allowing administrative functions for and by the Arab sector.
Unfortunately, in the current political climate, that will not be an option that our government could take. Therefore, Gaza should be administered by COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) until the international community realizes that any other solution that includes outside agencies, whether Egypt, Qatar, EU, or UN personnel, will allow elements of opposition to fester again. UNIFIL on the Lebanese border is a good example. Only full incorporation into Israel will restore peace in Gaza . Gazans will tell you that before Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, they were better off than under Hamas The much-discussed international aid must, from the very day after, include reconstruction of Arab housing in designated areas.
I now want to turn to the situation in Lebanon, where Hezbollah is still a force to be reckoned with, daily barraging the north of Israel with missiles, despite ongoing IAF strikes against its missile-launching sites. The IDF has also targeted selected locations in Beirut, including financial institutions where millions of dollars and gold are stored. Hezbollah’s main financial administrators have been eliminated. The former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s money bunker is situated beneath a hospital in central Beirut, which is used to finance its terrorist activities. An Israeli spokesman has said that the hospital will not be targeted.
We are conducting the war with extreme care to avoid enemy civilian casualties. In the process, we are losing many of our soldiers. “We are not at war with you, the Lebanese people” is the repeated Israeli message sent to the population of Lebanon. That is an erroneous attempt to cause insurrection. In Lebanon, Hezbollah is a state within a state, paying weekly social security, providing childcare, and offering loans without interest as per Sharia law. That ensures continued loyal support for Hezbollah.
The engine that drives the strife all over the Middle East is Iran, a theocratic dictatorship that calls itself an Islamic republic and has ambitions to establish an Islamic empire with nuclear capability.
It was in July 2015 that US president Barack Obama concluded the Iran nuclear deal that was to prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapon-strength material. In return, then-US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew arranged the transfer to Iran of $400 million in cash by private plane. That money was used to finance the terror activities of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. Lew, the negotiator of the transfer, is the current American ambassador to Israel!
I have already lived through one world war and do not want to experience another. That is why I appeal to Israel’s war cabinet to consider a different modus operandi. There has never been a war in which one side is expected to ensure that the enemy is well fed. Nor have I ever heard that prior warning of the location of an imminent attack has been given to the enemy. Wars are won by the element of surprise and misinformation. Remember the landings in Normandy.
In our present situation, it is important to prevent leaks. Therefore, we must remember that today we don’t have genuine friends, only allies with self-interest. Israel will survive and thrive even without fair weather friends. ■
Walter Bingham, now approaching the age of 101, holds Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest working journalist and oldest active radio host.