It’s official. After 3,000 Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli cities and towns, riots by Israeli Arabs, and substantial Israeli counterattacks, Prime Minister Netanyahu has agreed to an unconditional ceasefire. Palestinians are celebrating, but despite Netanyahu’s claim of a strong Israeli victory, the citizens of Israel are not happy.
GUEST- LIVE FROM JERUSALEM – May 23 – 27: David Rubin, native New Yorker, former mayor of Shiloh, Israel, and author of the brand-new book, Confronting Radicals: What America Can Learn from Israel.
TOPIC POINTS:
• How do we know that Israelis are not satisfied with the ceasefire? The latest polls have made that very clear. In a poll cited on Channel 12 News and in the Times of Israel, it was reported that a large majority – 72% of Israelis – were opposed to the ceasefire and wanted the Israeli offensive to continue.
• Netanyahu says that serious damage was done to Hamas, with minimal casualties to Israel. Isn’t that true? It is true, but it’s only temporary damage to Hamas. Their infrastructure is still in place and that’s very problematic for Israel. The unpleasant reality is that Biden applied pressure and Netanyahu caved in.
• I don’t want to oversimplify the conflict, but won’t Hamas be deterred by the 200 Palestinian deaths and many more wounded by the Israeli airstrikes? Hamas is an extreme Islamic terrorist organization ideologically similar to ISIS. Muslim radicals, and any radicals for that matter, do not lay down their weapons unless they are forced to do so. While it’s true that the ceasefire is at the moment preventing them from firing rockets at Israel, it’s only temporary. The only way to really stop them for the longer term is to totally remove their capability to fire rockets. To make that happen would have required a longer operation, a much more decisive victory, and a Hamas surrender. According to the latest polls, that’s what Israelis wanted to happen.
• Would that have been possible? Absolutely. Israel has a powerful military, and the dissatisfaction with the ceasefire is not just in the general public. The military leadership also wanted to continue towards a much more decisive victory and the expressed that to the politicians. What Netanyahu has done is essentially to “kick the can down the road” one more time, but his fellow citizens are not happy about it.
• While all this has been going on, Israel is still in the midst of coalition negotiations to see if a government will be formed in the next few weeks, or if there will be another election in Israel. How will that process be affected by the war and the ceasefire? Clearly, the radicalization of Israeli Arab citizens, as witnessed in the outbreaks of Arab riots in Israel’s mainstream cities, including some near our international airport and near Tel Aviv, has angered the Israeli public and moved it more to the right. Because of this, there is virtually a 0% chance of a left-of-center coalition being formed, perhaps a 50% chance of a right-of-center coalition, and a 50% chance of a new election. We will know which way it’s going in the coming days.
- Your new book, Confronting Radicals: What America Can Learn from Israel, has valuable lessons about how to resist both radical Muslims and the radical Left. How can people get a copy? They can go to www.DavidRubinIsrael.com or just go to Amazon.com and type in the words, Confronting Radicals: What America Can Learn from Israel.
BIO: David Rubin, former Mayor of Shiloh Israel, is the author of the new book, Confronting Radicals: What America Can Learn from Israel. Rubin is the founder and president of Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund, established after he and his then three-year-old son were wounded in a terror attack.
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