1.
What is new in the Jerusalem terrorist attack? The world continues as usual. Our barbaric neighbors persist in the only skill they have honed with horrifying precision over the past hundred years: murdering Jews. When possible, they behead our sons, rape our daughters, and burn parents and children alive. The unifying core that binds together the tribes and clans surrounding us is not a positive national vision of improving life for individuals and society. Rather, it is a negative national essence, denying the very existence of the Jewish people in its land.
2.
As an ambassador, I often posed this intellectual challenge to my interlocutors: The Arabs who call themselves "Palestinians" have never wanted an independent state of their own alongside Israel. Never. They fought against a Jewish state, yes, but had Israel not come into being, it is very likely that no "Palestinian state" would exist here. Instead, the territory would have been divided into southern Syria, northern Egypt, western Jordan, and so forth. Even now, the campaign for recognition of a "Palestinian state", in reality, an Islamic terrorist caliphate (Gaza on steroids) on the mountain ridge, a stone's throw from our main population centers and international airport, is not meant to realize the dream of Arabs in Judea and Samaria, nor of those in Gaza. Its purpose is to undermine the existence of the Jewish state itself.
Like the ancient Philistines in the Bible, whose entire identity was opposition to Israelite sovereignty over the land, the neo-Philistines of today have no other purpose except to thwart the dream of the Jewish return to Zion. They have succeeded in convincing the fools of the world that advocating for them is a realization of liberty and justice, while in fact the "success" of the Palestinians means the destruction of Western civilization and the imposition of Islam on those countries trying to appease them, France foremost among them.
3.
In this terrible attack, men of Torah and wisdom were killed on their way to study, to teach, and to engage in repairing the world (Tikun Olam). They were murdered with holy books in their hands. "Land, do not cover their blood" (Job 16:18). Amid the darkness, there were sparks of light: two brave ultra-Orthodox men who drew weapons against the murderers and advanced to neutralize them. One was a soldier in the IDF Hashmonaim Brigade, the other received his weapon through the firearms reform of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. The redemption of Israel is on its way, slowly, step by step, and if we are patient enough, we will yet see our ultra-Orthodox brothers enlisting in the IDF in large numbers.
On the very day when ultra-Orthodox Jews were murdered in an attack and fought back fiercely, the work of Korah and his assembly continues, spreading hatred within us. At the same time, in a Hebrew-language newspaper that preaches "the land is not ours," a well-known antisemite published an article titled "Ultra-Orthodox Hatred as a Unifying Vision." Truly, this is the greatness of our nation, likened to both dust and stars – when it rises, it rises as high as the heavens, and when it falls, it falls to the very ground. I returned from a public diplomacy mission in Europe, and more than once I was confronted with the lies this newspaper publishes against Israel and in favor of those who seek to weaken it. I told them that this was the best evidence of the strength of Israeli democracy, even as this paper repeatedly declares our democracy dead. I added that it also proves that one can be both Jewish and antisemitic.
4.
The law for Judea and Samaria must be the same as the law for Gaza. One of the lessons of October 7 is that we must not wait until they slaughter us; we must strike first. The difference between Judea and Samaria and Gaza is only in capacity, not in intent. If they could, the murderers of the Palestinian Authority would join the killers from Gaza. Were it not for our pioneers in the mountain ridges, and the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security agency deployed inside the territory rather than outside it, as in Gaza, things would be the same. If we want to live, the families of these murderers must be expelled from this good land. By "families," I mean the extended family. This is necessary both as deterrence and to prevent these terrorist acts from inspiring others who may follow their example.
The villages that host terrorist cells and cover for them must be treated like Khan Younis and Rafah. This is not a rash response, but rational thinking rooted in the ancient codes of this region and the lessons of a hundred years of Jewish bloodshed in our homeland. Now, we must press on with all our might in Gaza. Forward, forward, to the full victory.
