What has been happening in the Israeli communities adjacent to Gaza these past few months has made a lot of Israelis miserable. There is a sense that the Hamas leadership is using burning kites to manage Israel and the IDF. The sight of the scorched fields and frightened kindergartners ignite a natural and healthy desire to teach Hamas a lesson it won't forget – to deter, avenge and win.
Government ministers, Knesset members, and analysts suggest killing the people who release the burning kites and balloons, taking out the Hamas leadership, and going back into the Gazan vipers' next. Cabinet members, whose motives are obvious, leak opinions from the Shin Bet security agency, thereby undoing the collective responsibility, which is the basis of the government's ability to make responsible, informed decisions. The Left, which has long since lost its way in the maze of reality, has momentarily donned a right-wing mask.
True leaders do not have the privilege of making decisions based on sentiment, not even feelings of patriotism and national honor, which are of course important. Feelings are a poor adviser when it comes to a complicated dilemma, and certainly ones that affect human lives. The main test of leadership is the ability to make unpopular decisions, know how to stand up to the feelings of the masses and demonstrate courage in the face of a flood of advice and real pain.
Reality in our corner of the world is complicated. It is best that it be handled by chess players who are capable of seeing several moves ahead, and not just to the ends of their own noses. A ground incursion into Gaza will exact a heavy price in casualties and wounded. The people who have proposed a full-force operation in Gaza will hide behind the prime minister, the defense minister, and the IDF chief of staff once the first soldier is killed.
We have already gone into and left Gaza, achieving little. We've gotten temporary lulls at a heavy cost. One place can kill many kite-fliers, but in a reality in which mothers pray for their children to become shahids (martyrs), that won't deter anyone for any length of time. Targeted assassinations are possible, but who can guarantee that the leaders we take out will be replaced by anyone less extreme?
Before we launch a full-scale campaign of blood, fire, and columns of smoke, there is a great deal of wisdom in the idea of trying a new approach, one that could influence the future of our relations with the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria after the Palestinian Authority is finally pronounced dead. We start with a cease-fire, and then move on to an agreement and attempts to talk with the people of Gaza over the heads of their leaders, who are pulling them into an abyss of oppression and desperation.
Maybe this is how the people of Gaza will realize that they have become slaves being ground up in a machine of evil. This new tactic is vital, even ahead of a situation in which we will need to fight and win another war in Gaza, because a broad national consensus is necessary to make both war and peace.
Representatives of the American government are busy preparing the U.S. plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which includes important regional players. When the time comes, Israel must not cause it to fail by launching a military campaign. In times like these, hope has great value.
