The head of Channel 13's Arab Affairs desk, Zvi Yehezkeli, spoke today (Sunday) with Erel Segal on 103FM and referred to the days of battle of 'Magen and Arrow'.
""First of all, in this tactical incident, Israel has the upper hand. It's a successful operation, it's a significant operation, it's an operation that went well and was conducted excellently - but you didn't do much because you brought in Islamic Jihad and hit it below the belt, you destroyed the homes of its senior figures, you hurt it badly - but that doesn't change the reality in the Gaza Strip.
""That's the thing, you don't change reality because you clashed with a small organization, while the organization above it, the larger one that strives to destroy you, that exports this whole culture of jihad from the Gaza Strip, still exists and some would say that you made some kind of deal with it. But there was some kind of tacit agreement here between Israel and Hamas, that helped Hamas sit on the sidelines – you will pay for it.".
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""If the moment comes when Hamas has renovated and built the Gaza Strip and no matter what it has done, the moment will come when it will have to choose between a state entity, that's what they call it in the army, whether to continue jihad or be a strip that has some subcontractor that clashes with Israel, I argue that if it comes to Yahya Sinwar, he and all that group of Hamas leaders deny our existence and they will always choose jihad over improving the lives of their people, period.".
""And this moment will come, now they don't enter because for them this round is small, they will enter the round and you will see many other things like firebombing and all kinds of things they are preparing, you didn't neutralize Hamas by doing this - you bought silence.".
Yehezkeli emphasized: "It's no secret that we've been in this reality in the Gaza Strip for 15 years, seeing them intensify every time there's quiet, this quiet that will come now - it's quiet in which they arm themselves and as you know the most effective jihad is the quiet jihad. These rounds can end with Israeli military superiority and also against Hamas, but you haven't solved the problem - you have an entity there that mainly exports a culture of jihad to Judea and Samaria and you're not stopping that.".
He added: "This is not a Kikiuni organization, this is a jihadist organization. I have no problem boasting, the question is what will happen the next day. Okay, fine, a brilliant victory, I have no problem. But I said that about the Six-Day War, which was a strategic turning point. It's a zigzag story, but you have to understand that there is momentum here, here we have no momentum in the Gaza Strip and what will you do? Do it. Why did we get used to it? You made the terrible mistake of leaving the Gaza Strip and thinking that Hamas will return to the ceasefire borders. Cause and effect is in your world, in their world there is one thing - jihad.
""You're dealing with people who don't want your existence, we're not legitimate from their perspective, so the missiles will continue. If they could, they would fire at us from Jenin as well.".
Later, he also referred to the targeted thwarts: "There's nothing to be done, that's the story and I think it's more than that, the whole neighborhood is watching, look at what Nasrallah is absorbing from this operation, what is he absorbing? That we have the ability, but we won't turn the tables. We have bigger enemies than the Gaza Strip, and that's Iran, and that's Nasrallah. The question is how we're going to deal with them with our tools today, and we're kind of a problem, if we don't internalize our enemies, and I think that there are also no attacks in Iran and that Saudi Arabia is getting closer to Iran, that's a big problem from Israel's perspective, and in the end everything will come knocking on our doors.".
""There is a side where you are managed and even deterred by Hamas. We are a democratic society, whose values are peace, efficiency, economy, progress, and they are an undemocratic society, undemocratic organizations that don't care about human life, they don't care where the missiles fall, the senior Palestinian Authority officials are people who, as Yahya Sanawer says, 'will eat your liver,' that's what he said he would do when he met an Israeli soldier. These societies deter you, but that's the business you have with these people and the moment you are a democratic society you are deterred. But that's not deterrence, what you can do to them, there's nothing you can do, you have to take care of it and manage it. This monster that grew in the Gaza Strip grew because of your understanding that these guys are pit bulls.".
