Israel Matzav: 'Israeli Arab' fifth column encouraging Hamas as IDF enters Gaza

Friday, July 18, 2014

'Israeli Arab' fifth column encouraging Hamas as IDF enters Gaza

Good morning. I want to apologize for disappearing on all of you yesterday. In the afternoon, I had to be in Bnei Brak (where I got caught in a rocket alert driving home). Then I had to go to an engagement party (which started so late that I missed it), then to my Thursday night Torah class, and finally to Ben Gurion Airport to pick up Mrs. Carl, who left for the US the day before I came back, and whom I had not seen in three and a half weeks. I love you all dearly, but Mrs. Carl trumps all of you, has for nearly 33 years, and always will.

As I am sure you all heard, the IDF went into Gaza last night. There was really no choice. The government did all it could to avoid the decision, but Hamas is determined to have a fight with us, and in this region, if you cower, they will attack you and God forbid wipe you out. As of now, we have unfortunately had one casualty (around 4:00 am - no details yet), but the IDF has killed 15 terrorists and destroyed 103 'terror targets,' including some rocket launchers that were buried underground.

In a speech to the nation last night, Prime Minister Netanyahu described the goal of the operation as weakening Hamas to the point that they cannot attack us for a long time. In my opinion, and that of many other Israelis, the situation where we have to go into Gaza every two years or so after an escalation of rocket fire is unacceptable, and we must be able to go about our lives without worrying that the warning siren will go off. That's as true in Sderot as it is in Jerusalem. Therefore, the rocket threat must be eliminated completely, and if that requires eliminating Hamas completely, so be it.

I was told this morning - not reported in the media - that eliminating Hamas will take 8-12 months....

In the meantime, 'Israeli Arab' MK Hanin Zoabi has taken to Hamas' website to encourage an uprising against Israel.

Zoabi encouraged all Arab countries to help stoke a "popular uprising" against Israel, halt security coordination with the Palestinian Authority (PA) police in Judea and Samaria, and lay siege to the region.

Zoabi - who is a member of the Israeli Knesset - also put the world "Israel" in quotation marks for the entire article.

The inflammatory piece also attacks Operation Protective Edge against Hamas, which seeks to protect her home country against the thousands of rockets already fired by the terror group on Israeli citizens.

"There is no purpose to the military operation in Gaza," Zoabi writes. "Israel will in no way eliminate Hamas - neither the motivations behind the resistance nor the motivation to end the Occupation."

"Israel will in no way accomplish anything by brute military force, killing, and devastation," she added. "[Israel's] brutal aggression has no political policy other than fixing the current situation by continuing a series of crimes and violations against our people - stop that, and we will stop the rocket fire."

"In order for 'Israel' to declare an end to the possibility of guarding its Occupation and deepening it, we must end the enemy's Trinity - the siege, the security cooperation, and the border [. . .] we must besiege 'Israel' instead of negotiating with it," she concluded.

At least one MK thinks this is the last straw with Zoabi, who first came to prominence as a passenger on the Mavi Marmara terror ship.

Before the last elections, the Central Elections Committee banned Zoabi, under a clause requiring candidates and parties not to work against Israel's character as a Jewish, democratic state.

However, the Supreme Court later overturned the decision and allowed Zoabi to run - a decision Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon lamented in June.

"I was able to reject [Zoabi's] candidacy for the Knesset in the [Central] Elections Committee, but the Supreme Court overturned the decision," Danon said. ''This is a fiasco which the Knesset has to stop."

It's long past time for Zoabi to go. Freedom of speech does not mean one must countenance treason.

Labels: Gaza, Hamas, Hanin Zoabi, IDF, Israeli Arabs are a fifth column, Operation Protective Edge, personal stuff