Soon, I will write about my studies in yeshiva, about my Shabbat in Elon Moreh in Samaria, about my trip to Hebron, about the quality time I've been spending in the Moslem quarter of the Old City. I will write about barbeques in Gan Sacher, the big park near the Knesset, about the conversations I have had with rabbis, soldiers, border guards and Christian missionaries. I will write about beauty of my Land and I will detail the incomprehensible culture of our Arab neighbors and the bizarre conditions they live in. I will tell you about a man in the Jewish Agency who does amazing things with miniscule resources in order to help hundreds of young people. I will describe Ateret Cohanim and I will touch, ever so lightly, on Kabbalah.

But now, I want to focus on the security situation. As you all know, the enemy has once again risen its ugly head against Israel. The Hamas operation that killed two tank crew members, injured two others, and captured Gilad Shalit two weeks ago was followed by a large scale IDF incursion into the Gaza Strip. For the past year, since the evacuation of the Jews from Gaza, Kassam rocket fire has immeasurably damaged the lives of civilians of Sderot, Ashkelon and the various kibbutzim and moshavim around Gaza. The IDF had been responding in a weak and ineffectual manner, as the Israeli government decided that tens of thousands of its citizens living in fear in their own homes within the 1949 Armistice "Green Line" is not an issue worth solving. With the brazen attack that resulted in the capture of Shalit, even the left-wing rulers of Israel have decided that the Arabs had pushed to hard, and they decided to order the IDF to push back. The IDF has been operating in Gaza for the past two weeks, at the cost of one Israeli soldier killed and several wounded. Our forces have killed hundreds of Hamas operatives. There have also been civilian casualties, despite the IDF's efforts. The enemy surrounds himself with women and children and will not battle the IDF in the open field of combat. As that is to be expected, due to the enemy's technological weakness, then it should also be expected that the women and children of the enemy's camp should be inadvertantly killed and injured.

But things have gotten significantly worse. The State of the Jews is under intense attack from Lebanon in the North. Katyusha barrages and sniper fire hit a jeep, killing three. A Hizbollah force then captured the two remaining occupants of the jeep. As in the Gaza case, the IDF forces were on the Israeli side of the border, a border certified by the UN in May 2000 as correct and inviolable. Currently, there is large scale artillery and tank fire across the Lebanese border, and the Israeli Air Force has been conducting strikes. IDF infantry and tank forces have penetrated Lebanese territory, and Hizbollah infrastructure has been severely damaged. In the course of the fighting, an IDF tank was hit, its crew of four killed. Unfortunately, just as in the Gazan case, the Arabs don't rely on modern infrastructure for military prowess and so further operations, especially infantry-oriented ones, are needed in order to punish Hizbollah for their attack. The Hizbollah spokesperson clearly stated that if Israel releases thousands of terrorists, Hizbollah and Hamas would release their respective captives. It is now clear beyond all doubt that the terrorist networks around Israel are fully cooperating in their blatantly and honestly stated plan of the elimination of the Jewish State.

It is shocking that the leftist elite that rules Israel has not yet awakened to the cold, hard fact of a determined enemy bent on our destruction. The two pieces of territory from which Israel withdrew all its presence are the two areas from where the current onslaught is coming. Israel is still apologetic and half-hearted in its response. The constant reference to a "restrained" military reaction is confusing and demoralizing. The enemy senses that they have the momentum and they are correct. Israel's operations in Gaza yielded limited results and Hamas is as popular as ever. A poll of the West Bank and Gazan Arabs showing that 77% of them identify with Hamas' goal of using military force in general and suicide bombers in particular should come as little surprise. This poll has been conducted numerous times in the past decade and the number has always hovered between 75% and 80%. A clearer message from the Arabs could not be sent. And yet, Olmert and his group of left-leaning politicians are still wavering. Just a few days ago Olmert, in his childish idiocy, announced that no matter the ongoing combat, nothing will stop him from the "historic process of re-drawing Israel's borders."

So, as Israel is being pounded by enemy fire, as its civilians in the South, and now the North, are crowded into bomb shelters, their daily lives disrupted, their children in fear; as tens of thousands of IDF soldiers are carrying on daily and nightly combat on what can no longer be even generously called small-scale; as Jewish soldiers are killed and captured on soil that even the anti-semitic French recognize as sovereign Israeli; even now Olmert and his circle of pathetically blind left-wing pseudo-intellectuals is planning the destruction of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, communities whose isolated existance in those barren hills will do nothing to sway Hamas and Hizbollah ideology. The enemy have clearly stated what they want, they have demonstrated willingness to kill to get it, and they have flaunted international law even more often then they have used it for their advantage.

The IDF generals, in hope that the Knesset will act in accordance with basic logic, has started to call up reserve units. Even if the Arabs back down, the IDF should nevertheless deliver a series of debilitating air and ground strikes against them. The momentum of the current flare-up is with the Arabs, but we cannot let them dictate the intensity or the pace or when it will all stop. They clearly fired the first shots, the international community is finally neutral, if not on Israel's side, and Israel has a chance to act with indisputable legitimacy. Now is the time to strike Hizbollah and Hamas with overwhelming force, paying no heed to possible civilian casualties. More importantly, the IDF must attack Damascus and all major parts of Syrian economic and military infrastructure. Since Syria is one of the major sponsors of Hizbollah and Hamas, it makes simple sense to debilitate it. Iran is the other sponsor, and a more major one than Syria. After demolishing the Syrian economy and all its communication and transportation infrastructure, Iran should then receive a warning that if Hizbollah or Hamas strike Israel again, Iran will be the next target of the Israeli Air Force.

Will the Israeli government have the courage for such a move? No. In fact, we'll be lucky if the Israeli government has the courage to kill a tenth of Hizbollah and Hamas operatives. The G-d of Israel is trying to be clear in his message to the Jews, but we are not heeding. He has, in no complex or metaphorical way, set the game pieces in such a way that a great display of IDF power is needed. We, the Jews of Israel, are free to act in what we know is the proper way, or we can freely choose to be abused and beaten by a weaker enemy, allowing them to erode our morale. Of course, the Nation of Israel and the Government of Israel are not one and the same. The government is disconnected from the majority of the people and is only truly representative of the same ruling elite that has run Israeli society since the 1950's. Will we wake up?