The heart sank with pain at the beginning of the week, upon hearing the reports of the murder of six of the kidnapped by the abominable monsters of Hamas. The thought of the terrible suffering endured by the kidnapped themselves, and of their families who constantly held on to the hope of seeing their loved ones, and now are receiving them in coffins - shakes every person in Israel.
The natural reaction of a healthy and life-loving people is to harness their deep sorrow towards increasing their determination to remove this horrific evil from the world.
As we increasingly see the brutal devilry of our enemies, we must understand that we have no option but to live with them. We must destroy them to the core, just as the world destroyed Nazism.
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The difficult decision point
This campaign, as difficult, complicated and long as it is, is advancing towards its goals. Our soldiers are sacrificing their lives and destroying more and more capabilities of the cruel enemy. His oxygen pipeline on the Philadelphia axis has been blocked. Thousands of terrorist nests and terrorist leaders have been eliminated. Brigades of terrorists are falling one after another.
This campaign is taking a heavy toll on us. More and more precious soldiers, some young people who have not yet had time to start families, and some of them husbands and fathers of children - have fallen in battle. But they are going to war with strength and determination, recognizing that we have no choice but to remove this murderous threat from us.
But the Hamas devil has identified our weak point, and he is pressing on it with all his might - it is the compassionate Jewish heart and the sense of mutual responsibility. To this end, he has kidnapped hundreds of people - women and children, the elderly and the sick - as part of an organized plan to make Israeli society hostage in his hands.
The kidnapped are supposed to be his protector, preventing us from destroying him and allowing him to stay on his feet.
And now we stand precisely at the difficult decision point - whether to surrender, stop the war, re-allow the flow of thousands of terrorists and weapons through the Philadelphia axis, and leave intact the potential of the horrific threat, whose exploits we saw on Simchat Torah; or to grit our teeth and fight until the complete elimination of evil.
Do not cast a spell.
In the past, we knew not to give in to kidnappings. To that end, we embarked on the daring operation in Entebbe. That is why we embarked on the operation to free Nachshon Waxman, which unfortunately ended in his death. We knew very well that in our neighborhood, if we allow the kidnappings to achieve achievements, we will receive more and more families of kidnapped people in the future begging for the release of their sons. Not to mention the threat of missiles from the Gaza Strip to the entire country. And can a country be held hostage by a murderous terrorist organization?
Sadly, instead of strengthening the decision-makers who are trying to maneuver through this difficult situation, some are being used as tools by the terrorist organization to weaken our resilience. This is truly unimaginable.
There is no escape from the conclusion that foreign considerations guide them, at the expense of the vital interests of the entire people.
This week's Torah details the laws of war, and among them appears the verse: "Who is the man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, and let him not melt his brother's heart as his own." This is the most serious thing about war, that people instill weakness and faintheartedness. We must overcome and defeat evil completely!
