September 24, 2024
Sondra Oster Baras
Last week, we learned that thousands of Hezbollah terrorists were surprised by the sudden explosion of their pagers. Knowing that Israel is able to track the location of its enemies via their cellphones, some time ago, Hezbollah warned all of its terrorists to stop using cellphones. But they needed some system for communication. Enter the pagers. Although a rather old-fashioned method of communication, pagers do not have the cellular components that enable easy tracking. Hezbollah assumed that pagers were safe.
Months ago, Hezbollah ordered thousands of new pagers from a company abroad and the pagers were promptly distributed to the terrorists. Last Tuesday, all of these pagers were paged simultaneously. As their owners picked them up to view the incoming message, the beepers exploded, killing some, injuring others, including blinding hundreds. Those who did not manage to pick up their pagers to read the incoming message, were injured along their waist, hips or wherever. Some of these were killed.
I have to admit, that I cheered when I heard this. While Israel has not taken responsibility for this brilliant attack, we assume this was a Mossad operation. I can’t fathom how they managed to get all the moving pieces to work so smoothly together, but the end result was that thousands of terrorists were put out of operation and Israel now knows where these terrorists are based. And without any collateral damage. For some reason I can’t explain, this attack made us feel like we are starting to win this war.
We have been fighting a long, drawn-out war against enemies on seven fronts: Gaza, Yemen, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Judea and Samaria. While Jordan is not at war with Israel, terrorists are smuggling arms and explosives across their border with Israel on a regular basis and the IDF is having a hard time keeping up. Jordan doesn’t seem to be even trying to stop them. Of course, Egypt has done the same with Gaza for years — all of the weapons and cement for constructing the thousands of tunnels in Gaza were smuggled in from Egypt.
The IDF is stretched to the limit. While they have accomplished a great deal in Gaza, the two objectives of the war have not yet been reached: to defeat Hamas and to liberate the hostages. Some of the hostages were liberated, some hostage bodies were discovered and brought home for burial and some were released in a prisoner exchange in November. But there are still 101 hostages in Gaza, many of whom are assumed to have been killed.
Hamas is still alive and kicking. Thousands of their terrorists have been killed or captured and most of their commanders have been eliminated. But they are still functioning, still killing our soldiers, still holding on to our hostages. And in many parts of Gaza, it is Hamas who is still controlling the civilian issues. In order to defeat Hamas, we must not only destroy their ability to fight against us, but we must eliminate their civilian control of Gaza. And that includes eliminating or totally transforming the international aid organizations such as UNRWA, which have become totally infiltrated by Hamas. Even the humanitarian aid which Israel has allowed in to Gaza, as a result of extreme international pressure, has ended up in the hands of Hamas, which distributes it only to the terrorists and their families. If indeed there is human suffering in Gaza, it is because of Hamas, not because of Israel!
While all this has been happening, the north of Israel is bombarded daily by Hezbollah in Lebanon. Some 60,000 people have been evacuated from their homes for nearly a year and there is no end in sight. The country is united in our desire to see Hezbollah defeated once and for all, and last week it finally seemed to be happening
Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, addressed the world after the pager event. He admitted that Israel had bested him and, frankly, he did not look like a happy man. This man, who relishes boasting of the evil that he unleashes against Israel, seemed subdued. But he was not defeated. Not yet. The enemies that we fight are religious extremists who will fight until death to destroy what they see as their spiritual enemy. They are the embodiment of evil.
We waited with bated breath to see how Hezbollah would respond to this attack against its people, and most importantly, against its pride and honor. By the end of last week, the missiles were flying against Israel in greater intensity and broader geographical range. Yesterday, for the first time, missiles were fired from Lebanon to Samaria. We were shocked! Of course, our brothers and sisters in Northern Israel have been experiencing attacks all year.
My husband and I were home, I was on my laptop in the kitchen and Ed was reading in the living room. And then sirens sounded—loud and threatening! We ran! Since it was daytime, we were dressed and had our shoes on so we could just jump up and head to the shelter, which is two houses down from us. As we left our home, we saw all of our neighbors running from their homes, all of us heading to the same place. Just after we got into the shelter we heard the booms. When we were attacked by Iran in April, we also heard booms just after we entered the shelter, but those booms were not that loud and it turns out we were actually hearing the sound of missiles being intercepted by anti-missile weaponry. But yesterday, the booms were so much louder. Everything shook, and I was a bit shaken myself.
It turns out that Hezbollah missiles actually attacked several sites in Samaria— in Emanuel just south of us, near Alfei Menashe, just west of us and in an Arab village just outside of Revava and Yakir. Thank G-d, no one was hurt. What a miracle!! G-d is certainly watching over us.
The IDF has stepped up its attacks as well and has eliminated most if not all of the Hezbollah leadership. Today, we feel like we are gaining the upper hand. We know this war will continue to demand sacrifices from us. But it is essential that we fight to victory. And it is essential that our allies around the world, those countries who pay lip service to opposing terror and evil, step up and stand with us. There is so much they can do to help us. But at the very least, they should not try to stop us. After all, our fight is their fight. Our fight is your fight. Our fight is the fight for good against the worst of evil. May G-d give us all strength to persist until the job is done.