Netanyahu is right, 'challenging days are ahead' - editorial

Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) wisely points out that there is a time for everything – “A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build up.” This is a time for Israelis and our friends and allies to rally together in a show of genuine unity, strength, and resoluteness. And it’s certainly not the time to be at each other’s throats.

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the nation on Wednesday evening, “challenging days are ahead” for Israel following threats by Iran and its proxies to avenge the assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah’s top commander Fuad Shukr (Mohsin) in Beirut, who was responsible for the Majdal Shams tragedy on July 27.

The IDF also confirmed on Thursday that Mohammed Deif, a mastermind of the October 7 attack, was killed in a strike in Gaza on July 13.

“We are prepared for any scenario, and we will stand united and determined against any threat,” Netanyahu declared. “Israel will exact a hefty price for aggression against us from whatever quarter.”

Just a day before, the Post reported exclusively that Netanyahu had delivered a harsh warning to Israel’s adversaries at a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv. “To our enemies, I say: Do not underestimate us. On the battlefield, we are brothers who fight side by side, and we will continue to do so until victory,” he said.

Netanyahu is right that we need to get through this difficult period. The infighting, backstabbing, and finger-pointing among Israelis – especially our politicians – have got to stop. This does not mean that we should refrain from expressing our opinions, but we need to be aware that public spats feed our enemies.

Let’s not forget that Iran remains Israel’s primary enemy, supporting and encouraging its proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis – to carry out terrorist attacks against the Jewish state.

 According to The New York Times, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered a direct strike on Israel at an emergency meeting of the Supreme National Security Council convened after Haniyeh’s death was announced on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Khamenei met Haniyeh, who was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and he was very clear about his threat.

“With this action, the criminal and terrorist Zionist regime prepared the ground for harsh punishment for itself, and we consider it our duty to seek revenge for his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said.

Remaining united during challenging times 

As we approach ten months of this war, the longest in Israel’s history, let’s remind ourselves who our natural enemies are, and not take our anger and frustration out on one another.

While we all want the hostages home after more than 300 days, their families still have a right to protest, and they should be respected, not insulted (as has been reported in the media). Instead, we should all be standing together and calling in unison for the return of the hostages, as the families did on Thursday night in Tel Aviv.

While no one likes the arrest of nine reservists for allegedly abusing a terrorist, this is not the time for protesters to break into army bases such as Beit Lid and Sde Teiman to riot, as they did this week.

Instead, we should be doing all we can to support our soldiers and the IDF, especially those fighting our enemies in the North and the South. As a slew of public officials said in a joint call on Wednesday, the IDF must be kept out of politics:

“We are committed to placing the IDF completely outside the limits of protests, even if we believe it to be a just protest, and therefore, we do not condition service or reserve duty, do not involve the IDF in protests, and will not be part of bodies that do so; security forces are never physically assaulted, and speech remains within the limits of the law; IDF bases are never to be turned into areas of protests of any kind; within military service, there is no room for protests, and military command’s authority is accepted; any protest will be carried out without uniforms or weapons. In conclusion, the IDF is outside political arguments. As much as it sounds like a cliché – all of Israel are responsible for each other.”

We are not alone. We have powerful friends in the United States and worldwide, and we appreciate their support for our tiny but mighty nation. 

Ultimately, we are all in this together and need to support one another as much as possible at this difficult time. Someone put it succinctly in a social media post: “We might be a little nation, but we are one big family.”