I have three things to say about Prime Minister Yair Lapid's statement following Operation Breaking Dawn.
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First of all, the Left has a long history with the word "dawn."
In his election campaign, Ehud Barak promised Israel the dawn of a new day. But what sounded good at the time ended with the most brutal wave of terrorism in the country's history – the Second Intifada.
The recent military operation also boasts the word "dawn," implying that everything that came before was mere fumbling in the dark. Whereas now that the fresh and confident ruling party Yesh Atid is at the helm, "Israel's deterrence has been restored," as Lapid put it.
During Breaking Dawn, the Palestinian enemy was particularly tired. They fought with one hand tied behind their back, because the main terror group in the Gaza Strip – Hamas – avoided getting involved in the conflict. Why? That's right, because of the deterrence Israel established during last year's 11-day conflict known as Operation Guardian of the Walls and all the rounds that preceded it.
Israelis run to their shelters, and our sons and daughters put themselves at risk to raid the West Bank, which, unfortunately, leads to casualties sometimes, and in his victory statement the prime minister makes the unstately move of using it to score some favor in the upcoming elections.
Secondly, Lapid's more stately remark was, "I also want to thank the opposition and its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, for showing responsibility and backing the government throughout the operation."
This is exactly the spirit a statement that addresses an entire nation after a struggle should have. It is just a shame that as opposition leader himself, a week into Operation Guardian on the Walls – which was not initiated by Israel but was a response to rocket fire on Jerusalem – Lapid failed to disclose the responsibility he attributed to Netanyahu.
On the contrary, he questioned the considerations behind the launch of the operation, suggesting that the timing somehow benefitted the former prime minister
And lastly, what we learned from Breaking Dawn is that it doesn't matter whether it's Labor chief Merav Michaeli or head of the Religious Zionist Party Bezalel Smotrich sit at the edge of the government table, because terrorism is Gaza will always force us to respond, and our unwillingness to control the strip will always make the response moderate. With all due respect (and there is respect!) to the IDF, there is no new dawn in Gaza and probably never will be.
What we saw last week is what we've always seen.
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