Full Frontal

Winning Without Apology

Israel is going in.

They are going in to Gaza City and they are going in hard.

And, kumbaya, my Lord, this peace-loving yogini supports it!

Critics are arguing that no amount of military force will acheive Israel’s goals at this point: to bring back all the hostages and to neutralize Hamas. Their proof: it hasn’t yet.

I don’t see that as proof at all.

And to walk away now would be to surrender. Israel cannot do that and, by no means, should they be expected to. There is literally no other country on earth that would pre-empt a defensive and existential war in order to appease a world that is dead-set against their very (and very legitimate) existence.

For that matter, there is literally no other country on earth that would be expected to.

Allow me to remind you: Israel didn’t start this war, they didn’t want this war, but they darn well have not just the right, but the moral obligation, to win this war.

It hurts my heart to see true allies siding in-kind with the anti-Israel mobs and calling for withdrawal. If Israel capitulates now, it will literally do so at the expense of every life stolen on October 7 and ever since. Every kibbutznik and Nova party-goer, every hostage and soldier. It will mean that two years of war and trauma were all in vain and it will mean that Hamas won.

The predominant arguments against full-scale invasion largely center around the hostages. But so do the arguments for.

It is true that only a handful of live hostages have been saved through IDF rescue efforts. And far sadder, and also true, that three hostages were devastatingly killed in the fog of war by IDF friendly fire.

Seems like a wash, but doesn’t take into account the almost 200 hostages (148 alive) that were released in negotiated deals. Deals that only came about due to IDF military pressure. Which goes to prove: military operations do work.

Will a full-scale invasion accomplish the goal of retrieving every hostage? Let’s be honest. No one believes that Hamas is ever going to release all of the hostages under any circumstances. The hostages are the only thing standing between them and the dustbin of history.

So…the answer is to quit??? Let Hamas win? Because we can’t retrieve all the hostages?

What do you think will be the fate of the hostages if Israel suddenly unilaterally withdraws? We saw the folly of unilateral withdrawal in 2005. Did it bring peace or good will or the release of long-held hostages. No, no, and no.

So, why would anyone expect a different result now?

If Israel decides to end the war with 48 hostages still in captivity, there will be zero pressure on Hamas to ever let them go. And it will unequivocally empower the monsters of Islamic jihad to survive, rebuild, and start the cycle of terror all over again.

Pie-in-the-sky notions of dangling the carrot of conditional rebuilding are ridiculous. In theory and dealing with rational actors on any other stage, they would make sense: Gaza only gets the international funding to rebuild if Hamas returns all the hostages and cedes all power and arms. Reality: financial aid will pour into Gaza from all corners of the globe the second the war ends. It will pour in by the billions (most likely the tens of billions) regardless of any actions on Hamas’s part.

I hope you can fill in the blank from there: Hamas steals the aid, rebuilds its terror infrastructure, ratchets up the radicalization of the Gaza population, and prepares the next terror attack, with a winning anti-Israel, Jew-hating PR strategy already in place to further isolate and delegitimize the Jewish State.

And what happens when Israel retaliates…again?

We’ve seen the cycle enough times to know, it must finally be broken.

Neither the people of Israel, nor those of Gaza, can afford to return to the status quo of October 6, 2023.

For anyone with a soul, the destruction in Gaza has been devastating to watch. And I fully understand how anyone with a heart begs for it to stop. But they need to stop begging Israel and start begging Hamas.

Allow me to remind you once again: Hamas started this war and if they cared about their own people, they could end this war. Now. Not as in the theoretical “now-ish" with negotiations and a long-and-involved roll-out plan. Now, as in this second.

Sorry mobs, it is not up to Israel to back off in order to save the Gazans who danced ecstatically in the streets while Shani Louk’s broken, naked, raped and abused body was paraded as the Grand Marshall of the October 7th parade. It is Israel’s job to ensure there is never another parade. And it is Hamas’s job to end the procession.

Sorry mobs, it is not up to Israel to back off in order to save the Gazans who danced ecstatically in the streets as Shani Louk’s broken, naked, raped and abused body was paraded through the streets as the Grand Marshal of the October 7th parade. It is Israel’s job to ensure there is never another parade. And it is Hamas’s job to end the procession.

As the operation in Gaza unfolds in real-time across media and social media in a way that has never occurred in any other war, even our allies—even Israelis themselves—have turned on the IDF. I find this the biggest disappointment.

We don’t have to rehash the fact that Israel has lost the PR war. We all know that. But it’s confounding that even people who seem to understand the depraved manipulation of the Hamas propaganda machine…are now falling for it themselves.

Israel has not gone a step too far. It has not gone far enough. Israel is fighting a war. And in the real world, that means fighting to win. Not to draw. And certainly not to lose.

If ever there was a nation on earth, and a war, that could not afford to be lost, it is the existential war that Israel is fighting today. And GOD BLESS BIBI and fighting with fingernails. Israel is determined to rip off the band-aid now, so we never have to fight this war again.

And I will brace myself for a cascade of hate to follow, but GOD BLESS TRUMP, as well, for being the one consequential leader on earth (and all hats off to Javier Milei!) with the moral clarity to green light an Israeli victory.

Top-to-bottom, world-wide opinion has turned so sharply against Israel because (I’ll go ahead and say the thing) Jew-hatred has consumed the globe, as it has in the past and is guaranteed to do again in the future. And Israel cannot stop fighting the campaign against the Jews based on the fact that the world hates the Jews.

The world isn’t going to suddenly love us because Bibi decides to forfeit the war.

Pro-Hamas mobs crowding our live and virtual spaces are not rioting because of anything other than violent tropes and pervasive double-standards. Anti-Israel/anti-Zionist/antisemitic (take your pick) sentiment has become normalized and even celebrated. It is socially acceptable to call for death to all Jews, or a global Intifada, or the complete destruction of the Jewish State, and people are exploiting the thrill-of-loathing to justify demands that Israel quit now, lie down and die.

I’m sorry to say it again and again, but never again.

And after 23 months of brutal fighting, that includes no more partial deals. Never again negotiating with terrorists. Relentless pressure is the only thing that will end this war.

Yes, maximum pressure has not worked to date to accomplish Israel’s goals. But why?

Every time Israel has ramped up its offensive, it has brought Hamas back to the table. Let’s call that Exhibit A, because it is important evidence.

Exhibit B, every time Hamas comes to the table, Israel is forced/coerced into accepting a bad ceasefire agreement that compromises both its war aims and its long-term security.

Exhibit C, every time the pressure builds, the world forces Israel to release the pressure valve.

So, how do we know maximum pressure doesn’t work???

How does anyone know that a maximum pressure campaign won’t bring Hamas to the table once and for all to accept a full, comprehensive deal to end the war?

As we all know, one of the biggest challenges of a war on a genocidal death cult like Hamas is that they not only don’t care if they die in the process, they actually welcome death.

They welcome their own death as martyrs and they welcome the death of their own people as PR wins.

But here’s the fact: no matter how much Hamas loves death—the martyrdom, the virgins, all the things—simple survival is how they win this war. So, no matter what they say, they sort of love life, too....

And on that premise, I firmly believe that when Israel finally takes over 100% of Gaza, Hamas will finally give up the fight and the hostages. It may very well happen before 100%.

Everyone can see that Hamas is already shaking in its boots as you read this. They are desperately playing their final card—the hostages—as a last-ditch attempt to save themselves.

As long as Netanyahu sticks to his guns and insists on nothing less than a full, comprehensive deal, Hamas will no longer be able to play their reindeer games, prancing around the diplomatic sphere at the expense of the hostages and the Jewish State. They will no longer be able to exploit international sentiment in order to manipulate a favorable outcome to this war that they started. When Hamas realizes that Israel is serious about ending them in order to end the war, they will have no choice but to finally accept Israeli terms, or die an ugly death.

Let me add that I am not naive about what this may mean for the fate of the hostages. I have been physically ill and breaking down both physically and mentally over them for 23 months. But I am also not naive about Trump, his amount of control over Israel, and the very real prospect of his patience running thin and forcing Bibi to end the war before the hostages are home.

The window for Israeli victory is closing and the only way to climb through it is by occupying Gaza and hoping Hamas cares if not about the survival of its citizenry, at least about the survival of itself. Personally, I think it is a gamble worth taking, as long as Israel doesn’t prematurely fold its cards…once again.

__________________________________________________________

Am Yisrael isn’t just the people of Israel. It’s the Nation of Israel, within Eretz Yisrael and throughout the Diaspora. If you are part of Am Yisrael—or a precious ally—please join the Yoga of War community.

🎥 THE YOGA OF WAR PODCAST ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEk7dn2pk4QXmLMnBCB80yQXIIcBDYsi0

🪂 🤸 ALSO BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE "A PARATROOPER AND A YOGI WALK INTO A BAR..." PODCAST WHICH I CO-HOST WITH THE ICONIC Andrew Fox! https://www.youtube.com/@ParatrooperAndYogi

🔊Both podcasts can be found on YouTube or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.