By DMITRI SHUFUTINSKYUpdated: JUNE 21, 2018 16:12
The "Great March of Return" is over, for all intents and purposes. Sure, it got a lot of media coverage on the Palestinian situation in Gaza, which has largely been ignored since summer 2014. Sure, there was criticism of Israel's handling of the protests. Yet the march ended in failure. The world has now seen that Hamas was heavily involved, and it has been criticized. Over a hundred Palestinians, most of them Hamas members, have died. Israel has lost nobody, and has struck numerous Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip. Instead of handing back the captive Israelis in exchange for a ceasefire and international aid, Hamas has instead decided to adopt a policy of arson against the Jewish state. Hundreds of flammable kites and kite bombs have been sent over the border and set ablaze Israeli farmland and national parks. There is a debate on how to stop this: while some call for shooting those sending the kites, it appears the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are bombing Hamas targets in Gaza instead, or using drones to fire "warning shots" at these so-called "protestors." On the diplomatic front, it's clear that while Israel has a lot of disadvantages, it can actually do better in a number of ways. Too often, Israel's advocates are reactionary and on the defensive against aggressive Arab propagandists. Nikki Haley, the US's new UN Ambassador, has shifted the strategy by openly going on the offensive against Hamas and other Palestinian extremists. Indeed, diplomatically, Jerusalem needs to follow this example and relentlessly go on the offensive. Rather than allowing the Palestinians to dictate the situation all the time, Israelis need to take up the onus of doing so. Palestinians cannot falsely claim to be indigenous and paint Jews as imperialists, yet destroy the land that they claim to love. No native people has ever done this. It is the Jews who beautified and cared for the destitute land upon our return, rather than letting it sit and waste away, or igniting it in a reckless tantrum. This point needs to be more adamantly made in the ideological and academic clashes about the conflict that often take place on college campuses. Moreover, we also need to display our own form of non-violent Zionist resistance. It is clear that Hamas intended for the March of Return to be bloody, and the flaming kite situation is more proof of this. Wisely, Israelis are adopting a position of "keep calm and carry on" in the face of this new "arson terror" while the military acts proportionally by striking terror targets. Israeli children are countering the fire, hate, and racism of the Palestinians with "peace balloons." In light of destroyed farmland in the south, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) has launched a campaign of "they burn, we plant" to replace trees and crops through donations. Throughout history, those who have tried to dampen the spirits of the Jewish people and destroy us have failed. Yes, many millions were killed, beaten, raped, persecuted, exiled, and tortured. But we are still here. Our enemies--the Greco-Assyrians, the Romans, the Babylonians, the Ottomans, the Nazis--are no more. Israel vanquished its Arab foes numerous times in war, and now is beginning to form alliances with them. Israel has become more prosperous even as states (and the Palestinians) surrounding it have rotted from within. And, as the British went about their business in London after the Nazi bombardment, and went on to defeat Hitler later in the war, so, too, will we overcome. After all, we have suffered far worse.
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