Minister Miki Zohar: Military control of Gaza will result in hundreds of casualties.
Culture and Sports Minister urges fellow Likud lawmakers to think twice before calling for Israeli military control of the Gaza Strip after the war.
Hezki Baruch
May 21, 2024, 6:22 AM
“Anyone here who calls for a military government knows that he will later go to the homes of the mothers who will lose, probably hundreds if not more soldiers, and explain to them why their children fell.”
…Military control means “to manage these murderers, to manage people who supported terrorism, who encouraged terrorism, who took Hamas as their leader which led to this mass murder, why should I go be their babysitter?”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant explained at the meeting why he is against military control of the Gaza Strip, saying, “This will make the military service four years, we don’t have enough soldiers for that.”
At the same time, amid the criticism of him, he stressed, “I am against a Palestinian state, neither Hamas nor Israel should be there. I think the least bad alternative is a local factor. [But] there are no volunteers among factors in the world.”
The answer seems obvious: An alert and hubris-free, political agenda-free high military command which listens and acts on its subordinates warnings, channeling them up to the governmental echelons in order to mandate appropriate military actions in accordance with whatever the situation on the ground dictates. We are in a milchamat shel Torah and have been so since 1948. What this means is smashing the glass ceiling which prevents both dati and chareidi soldiers from advancing to officer ranks and which prevents them from advancing to high General positions in the military high command in the IDF based only on merit. Further, the only way of rebuilding Gaza is the restoration of our former Gush Katif brethren to the area so that they can rebuild the Gush Katif towns and neighborhoods, thus bolstering Israel’s agriculture as it was before they were expelled by force by the government in August, 2005.