Wise, Painful Words from Naomi Ragen

I was thinking about posting again about today when this came over the wire. I couldn't put it better.

Nothing Left to Say
Naomi Ragen

As a direct result of the destruction of the communities ofGush Katif, terrorists are now free to shoot rockets, plantland mines, and dig tunnels all over Gaza. No one takes responsibility for the attacks. And if you try to fightback, you find yourself blowing up civilians because terrorists hide behind the innocent.

Today, nine terrorists infiltrated Israel with machine guns,rockets, and suicide belts. They killed two soldiers: Chanan Barak and Pavel Slotzker. They also kidnapped Gilad Shalit and injured four other soldiers. Some terrorists were killed. Others escaped back through the tunnels to Gaza. Chanan, who lived in Arad, was "the wisest, strongest man I knew," a friend said. He would have been 21 in August. Pavel, who was planning to study medicine when he finished his tour of duty, was from Dimona. He was "big and beautiful," his mother said. He was twenty. Gilad Shalit,who has been in the army 11 months, is 19. His family lives in the Western Galilee. I cannot imagine what they are going through. The horror of waiting, the search for information. May God return him safely home.

I have been writing much less of late. Not because nothing is happening but because there is nothing left to say. How many times can you write that Israel's leaders are weak and deluded? And why should anyone care given their empowerment through a free and democratic election? How many times can you say the obvious, that the Arabs have a single agenda, to wipe us off the map? No one even denies it anymore, not even the Leftists. How many times can you say: We said this would be the result of the retreat from Gaza, more murder, more mayhem, not a saving of lives, but a horrible security risk that would endanger our soldiers most of all? And who doubts it now anyway? Like the collapse of the Oslo Accords, which sold a bill of goods to the gullible, no one cared, or took responsibility, or paid the price for the death of thousands of Israelis.

And so it will be this time. Those who will pay the price will be the wise and the strong, the beautiful and the intelligent, who stand under orders at our borders while Mr.Olmert and Mr.Peretz are busy with their photo ops, smiling for the foreign press, shaking hands, and kissing whatever part of the enemy is available.

"Put not your faith in princes," the Psalmist writes. Likethe Hebrews facing the sea with the Egyptians massing at their backs, we await the future hoping for miracles, even as we mourn the unbearable reality of all our present.

Naomi

Postscript:
I'd only add that the delusion is not confined to the leadership. Witness the call for the dismissal of the Air Force commander because of civilian casualties in Gaza, and the celebration of the idea that Jews don't need territory at a popular blog.