What does real victory look like?


One of the greatest cultural struggles of being an immigrant is the lack of camaraderie around your birth country’s national sports. Take me for example. I love cricket. But here in Israel, try sharing that enthusiasm with “sabras” (Israeli-born natives) or immigrants from non-Commonwealth countries. One thing we do agree upon however, is that whether your sport is football, baseball, cricket or synchronized swimming, only one team wins.
When it comes to war, it’s not so simple.
Civilized societies love to debate what many term the “Israel-Palestinian” conflict. I’d argue that most of those sympathetic to both the Palestinian and Israeli/Jewish cause would define a “victory” as a situation where Israelis and Palestinians live side by side in peace and security. (I’m deliberately avoiding the particulars of how exactly that would look). I also dare to argue that for a significant proportion of Gaza Palestinians, this would also be the case.
As most of the civilized world has already recognized, this is not so for their rulers. For Hamas, victory represented their ability to breach Israel’s defenses and deliberately target and mercilessly murder innocent civilians, while also performing unspeakable atrocities. If you’re not convinced, you can find plenty of evidence online. But for this barbarian organization, even that falls short of a “real victory.”
So what else might Hamas be looking to achieve during their joint meeting with Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and other Iran-based groups, where they seek to agree on next steps towards this precise goal? I challenge you to take a few moments to ponder what that goal might be. And even if you’re a firm believer in the Palestinian cause, how well does that align with your own views? Is it even close?
For those outside Israel, the very idea that given the chance, Hamas would go even further than they did on October 7 might seem surreal. For my family, where the distance separating us from Gaza is a mere 40 km (25 miles), this is something we need to take very seriously. We’re scared for ourselves, our children and our soldiers.
Like many, I pray for a time where the Arabs of Gaza will peacefully battle Israelis on the soccer field or as far-fetched as it may seem, the cricket stadium. Yet reality is that in October 2023, when we go in to bat, it’s for the survival for our country, our lives – and to a very large extent, yours too.
Rest assured, if Israel were to go down, G-d forbid, there are plenty of like-minded Hamas sympathizers all over the world – in the US, Europe, Australia and many other countries – who are just waiting to continue this battle on your shores to achieve the ultimate victory.
Location: Israel

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