The losing battle against delegitimization just took a mortal hit, some Israelis believe
Altering our original plans, today we're taking a look at a few of the numerous fronts on which the battle against Israel's delegitimization is being waged. It's rough going, and we're not winning.
The killing of seven employees of the World Central Kitchen (WCK), in a war that has claimed thousands upon thousands of lives so far, might initially seem entirely tragic, but is the sort of thing that happens in war and that eventually gets forgotten.
That may happen here, too.
Needless to say, Israel needs to investigate (the higher ups probably know by this point, I would assume) how three different vehicles, over a long stretch of road, all marked from above with WCK clearly visible, could have been struck this way. And Israel will have to explain and make changes. That’s obvious.
But what is less obvious is that “this will pass.” The loss for the victims’ families, of course, will never pass. The loss is indescribable. But the event may not pass for Israel, either.
As we will see below (and we’ve changed topics for today because this is so urgent), serious Israeli analysts are worrying aloud that this could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, that this could have been the event that forces Israel to end the war—with the hostages back, or maybe not.
On one level, it was “just” one drone, three missiles, three cars, seven completely innocent human beings. Of course, “just” is an inappropriate term here. This is a horrible human tragedy. Period.
But on another level, everything may just have changed.
We will look below at one analysis by Ron Ben-Yishai, a leading Israeli military analyst, and then glance at other parts of the war against Israel’s legitimacy, which the World Kitchen Organization tragedy is going to make even harder to fight.
We begin with genuine expression of Israeli grief.
Ruthie Rousso, whose Instagram post you see below, is a well known Israeli personality, a kind of international ambassador for Israeli food and much more. (Most of the talking heads about Israel on Instagram are obviously irrelevant and do not move any needle one iota, but she is an important exception.) As she notes below, WCK was not only supplying food to Palestinians. It was one of those organizations that actually cares about Israel, that helped deliver food to Israelis whom the government couldn’t feed at the outset, its works in coordination with the IDF … we’re so suspicious of international aid organizations that we forget there can be groups like this.
But there are. Hence the genuine grief. And she is far from alone. Many Israelis are distraught about the unnecessary loss of innocent life.
But beyond the grief, there is a real possibility that this tragic mistake may have cost Israel dearly. As Ron Ben-Yishai, notes in his YNet column below, in one extreme but possible scenario, this might have cost us the chance of getting the hostages back.
We’ll read him below, but first our schedule.
FRIDAY (04/05): The stories just keep oozing out. The horror of what happened on October 7, young Israelis who saw their parents killed, tried to save them, etc. These children are far too young to have memories like that, and a new book in Israel has collected some of their self-written profiles. We’ll read a bit of the “essay” by a thirteen year old girl who went through what no human being should ever had to endure.
Since Purim is now in the rear-view mirror, Passover cannot be far away. We’ll provide more details as the holiday grows closer, but for now, a quick note that we’ll be taking most of Passover off.
One of our goals in Israel from the Inside is to expose our readers to Israeli writers, thinkers, performers, etc. whom they might not otherwise “meet.” It’s high time we mention Ron Ben-Yishai, the author of the column below, because in Israeli journalism, Ben-Yishai, is a very, very big deal. And rightly so.
Born October 26, 1943, Ron Ben-Yishai, is a journalist and publicist, reporter and military commentator on radio, television and the press. For a long time, he has been the military and security correspondent and commentator for YNet, Israel’s most-read Hebrew news site. He’s been awarded the Chief of Staff's Medal of Honor and was the winner of the 2018 Israel Prize in the field of Media.
He is taken very seriously. And here’s part of what he had to say after the WCK catastrophe. A screenshot of the headline on YNet is followed by a translation of part of his column.
The large headline, from Tuesday afternoon, reads:
A human error that will cost us dearly—and a strategic crossroads on the way to the end of the war
The smaller sub-headline reads:
Military success, defeat in the campaign for legitimacy: within a week to 10 days, Israel will have to make fundamental decisions towards the end of the war in the coming months. The abductees deal - if it comes to fruition - could also bring about an arrangement with Hezbollah and the package deal that the US is consolidating. Along the way, the IDF will have to disband the remaining battalions in Rafah
… The incident was on what is known in the IDF as the "coastal axis", meaning the road that runs along the coastline in Gaza in its northern area. The organization WCK, very friendly to Israel, set up a floating dock there where it is now unloading the second aid load it has brought from Cyprus after the shipment was inspected in Israel.
The cargo was supposed to be distributed mainly among the residents of the north of the Gaza Strip, whom the UN claims are in danger of starvation. So the harm to the organization's employees took place in an area where they were clearly supposed to be, and the IDF knew this. …
…
… this tragic mistake was no less than a disaster: a human disaster due to the killing of well-meaning people whose organization was friendly to Israel, and also because this event severely damages the legitimacy of the State of Israel to defend itself and plays into the hands of anyone who claims that the IDF does not observe the rules of international law when it operates fire and military power in the Gaza Strip.
It is necessary to understand: the State of Israel is today in a situation where the IDF has very good achievements in fighting in the Gaza Strip and in the north. These achievements bring the State of Israel closer to victory in the war, but at the same time, when the military operation is being conducted according to plan and has a chance to also lead to the release of the hostages, we are suffering defeat after defeat in the battle for legitimacy. This defeat is partly due to the failures of the political echelon and partly due to other reasons related to trends hostile to Israel and sympathetic to the Palestinians in world public opinion. But what is important is that if we continue to be defeated in the field of legitimacy, the international community may force us to stop the fighting without letting all the abductees released and without our achieving the goals of the war in the south and the north.
Ben-Yishai then goes on to list four major objectives Israel has to pursue in the war. They are (1) a hostage deal, (2) resolving the untenable situation in the north, (3) a decision about entering Rafah, which the United States and other reasonably friendly countries strongly oppose, and (4) an arrangement for Gaza for “the day after.” After going into a good bit of detail about these, Ben-Yishai continues as follows:
It all depends on the deal
The achievements required from Israel's point of view in each of these issues cannot be achieved at the same time. Therefore, Israel must immediately define for itself the order of the strategic moves it will take in order to achieve victory in the war.
The best scenario is a hostage deal that would involve a ceasefire of about 6 weeks. During this ceasefire, there would also be a ceasefire in the north during which an accelerated diplomatic process would begin, with American and Arab mediation, to remove Hezbollah from the border. Should all this fall into place, the State of Israel and the Americans should try to reach agreements on a new administration in Gaza through local forces and Arab countries friendly to the United States, including normalization with Saudi Arabia.
If things go properly in these three tracks, the State of Israel may be able to forgo entering Rafah in a military operation. [emphasis added]
And if not, it will be possible to end the war by entering Rafah sometime towards the end of the summer. All of this, as mentioned, on the condition that there is a hostage deal, which could open serious negotiations on removing Hezbollah from the north, and that we reach agreements with the Biden administration no later than June on the day after in the Gaza Strip and on normalization with Saudi Arabia (this is the big package that the USA is offering us, though Israel has for now not agreed to the integration of Abu Mazen's Palestinian Authority into it).
The key to this process is, as mentioned, a hostage deal. If it becomes clear within a few days that Sinwar is obstinate and trying to stall, it will be necessary to change the order of strategic moves: most likely then the first move will be an entry into Rafah in a way that will greatly increase the military pressure on Hamas and perhaps cause Sinwar to alter his positions.
It is quite clear that this cannot be done in a few days, and we would have to wait a few weeks until the process of evacuating the Palestinian displaced persons and refugees from Rafah to the shelters that are being set up for them in the area of the center camps is completed. After entering Rafah, there would most likely be a hostage deal. After the hostage deal, whether or not it happens, the IDF will decide whether to embark on a military campaign in Lebanon—or whether there are realistic chances for a diplomatic settlement that will keep Hezbollah away from the border, in which case there would be no need for a campaign in the north.
In any case, the pressure on the Prime Minister is increasing from the cabinets, the coalition and the Minister of Defense on the part of the residents of the north, who must be in a position to return to their homes around July-August at the latest, either through military action or diplomatic arrangement.
There is more that follows in the Ben-Yishai piece, but with respect to the killing of the WCK people, his critical warning, above, is this: “if we continue to be defeated in the field of legitimacy, the international community may force us to stop the fighting without letting all the abductees released and without our achieving the goals of the war in the south and the north.”
That is why the battle for legitimacy, or the battle against delegitimization, is so critical these days. With that in mind, we turn your attention to two video clips well worth watching:
The first is a conversation between Douglas Murray and an Al Jazeera reporter. She looks professional and has a tone of balance, but that’s precisely the problem. She’s actually an anti-Israel walking screed, which Murray displays with his characteristic skill. That is why Israel has decided that Al Jazeera must go (see TOI screenshot below). It may work, it may not. It may be a wise move, it may be foolish. But it stems from an Israeli awareness that in the war for legitimacy, we are losing very badly. And that, as Ben-Yishai notes, could have direct implications for our getting the hostages back.
The second video, of Rabbi David Ingber of Romemu in New York, is also important. Rabbi Ingber, who is a friend, is one of those American rabbis who had long pursued a relationship and covenant with the American progressive world. He’s not the only to have pursued that alliance, of course, but he’s really the only one to say as clearly as he does that the Jews in that relationship have been betrayed. Other rabbis hint at it, or say it and then back pedal a bit, but Rabbi Ingber pulls no punches. The sermon section of this video begins at 1:06:00. You can begin there. This, frankly, is what all congregations in the left and in the center need to hear. Because we’re fighting the war for legitimacy among Jews, too.
Watching these videos takes time. But as important as what is happening in Gaza and in the north clearly is, this other battle matters no less, and it’s not getting enough attention.
That’s why it was important to share Ron Ben-Yishai’s warning, to see the Douglas Murray video, and to remind ourselves (thanks to Rabbi Ingber) that liberal, Zionist passion is still very much possible. And it needs to spread.
Tomorrow, we return to the hostages, and to the heroic story of a 13-year-old girl named Hadar.
Impossible Takes Longer is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and at other booksellers.
There is no precedent for this defensive war which is being fought under a microscope by unsung and unfairly maligned heroes who are held to a standard that no other army has ever been held to. Rabbi Ingber is right - the lens through which world leaders perceive the war is perverted and as in other battles in Jewish history, there is no choice but to fight or face extinction, and not just in Israel. No matter the numerous and unfair UN resolutions nor the morally confused politicians, absurd student activists or preening NGO leaders,WE MUST WIN THIS WAR -- on the battlefield and in the hearts and minds of ordinary people not obsessing about Jews — to save our civilization, humanity and way of life.
Please . . .
Some people are real blabber mouths.
Why do you need to be constantly looking in the mirror. Put your heads down and fight the war.
We’ll have plenty of time for recriminations later.