by Nadav Shragai
What a passive country.
We were passive about the "price-tag" attacks and the attempted arson
of mosques -- and we ended up with a young Arab burned to death. We were
passive about 100 attempts to kidnap Jews -- and we ended up with the
abduction and murder of three teenaged boys. We have been passive about
Arab violence for years, as well as the attacks of Jews throughout the
streets of Jerusalem (on the Temple Mount, on Mount Scopus, on the Mount
of Olives, in the City of David, in the Old City), and here we are,
facing a sort of Jerusalemite intifada and the de facto division of the
city. We were passive about the sovereign and governmental vacuum in
east Jerusalem, and today we are faced with anarchy -- from both sides.
And now, we continue to
be passive. The Arabs of the State of Israel are running wild,
residents of the country's south are sitting in bomb shelters -- and
what remains above all else is the policy of passivity. Wrong.
Misleading. Misplaced. We are confused: Opinions, even marginal ones,
and words, even difficult ones -- we can accept. Violence -- however
mild -- must not be accepted. Passivity conveys weakness and
helplessness. It is the opposite of deterrence. Passivity allows Hamas
and its derivatives to continue firing rockets and missiles over Sderot,
Ashkelon, Ofakim and Beersheba. Passivity asks for quiet at any price,
while laying the foundation for the next escalation. Passivity may not
quite be the policy of Peace Now, but it is certainly the policy of
"Quiet Now."
We continue to accept
the present at the expense of the future, paying a price that will only
keep on growing. In the south, passivity continues to allow terror and
hate to systematically accrue power in Hamastan to our south, and to
create more and more long-range missiles, which at the end of the day
will fall on Tel Aviv and its neighbors. Passivity allows the enemy to
continue building "Underground Gaza" -- the underground tunnel system
where murderers hide, where death lurks in the form of lethal weapons.
Passivity also weakens the Israeli homefront, planting the seeds of
depression and demoralization.
Now, we are also
accepting the hatred and the violence of the residents of the Triangle
region and the evil and the hatred of the northern branch of the Islamic
Movement in Israel. We are accepting the ongoing disruption of daily
life in the south. The hundreds suffering from panic and anxiety, the
world's hypocritical indifference and weakness, and our great friend the
United States that has lost its way.
Did we elect a passive
government? Have the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police turned
into the state's forces of passivity? There are many tools to use in the
political and military toolbox before the invasion of Gaza. The toolbox
includes, among other options, sanctions against the Palestinian
population, which is dependant upon us for its electricity, water, gas,
food and money.
Passivity, you should
know, is what turned the tables here. It gradually changed the homefront
to a front that arms itself against all odds, when it is the IDF that
should be fighting on the front, to ensure that our homefront does not
become a battlefield. That is their job. That is what they were created
for. That is what they were trained for.
Passivity breeds passivity.
Today, we are paying the price of past passivity, and tomorrow, we will
pay the price of today's passivity. If we do not come to our senses, the
price will only go up.
Nadav Shragai
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=9033
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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