Operation Pillar of Defense has ended predictably enough in a ceasefire and Hamas is clearly the victor. Why else would they be dancing in the streets? We all saw the pictures of them celebrating the bloodshed. Whose blood was actually spilled? Why their own. Israel’s air force made a wasteland of all their military infrastructure. Yet they stand there amid heaps of rubble jubilantly shouting “We won!” 

One Israeli professor wrote that this is a typical product of the Middle Eastern imagination. Even if the Gaza Strip had been totally demolished and its population wiped out the last remaining member of Hamas would be dancing among the ruins proclaiming victory. That’s just the way they are. They even ignore the fact that their great hope the abundant supply of Qassam Grad and Fajr missiles at their disposal disappointed them dismally. They fervently believed that with that much ammunition they would wreak havoc slaughter and terror in the cities of Israel. Baruch Hashem the results fell far short of their hopes. But that really doesn’t matter to them. What does matter is that “Israel surrendered and we won.”

The real question is what makes them think they won? How can they celebrate victory among the ruins? If history repeats itself we can just go back a few decades as the battles of the Yom Kippur War drew to a close. Then Egyptian President Anwar Sadat announced “Victory is ours.” A foreign journalist questioned him: “The third brigade of your army is surrounded by Israeli forces in Sinai. The Israeli army is 100 kilometers from Cairo your capital. Mr. President exactly what victory are you referring to?”

President Sadat replied “How do I know we won? I listen to the Israeli radio broadcasts and from what they say I conclude that we won.”
The principle here is simple. After being trounced on the battlefield the enemy tunes in to what the Israeli media are saying. They listen to the commentators and the commentary on the commentators and they hear us the people of Israel declaring that we’ve failed we’ve lost we’ve been humiliated we’ve put up a white flag and so on and so forth in the typically masochistic Israeli tradition. Reading the news over the last few days it’s depressing to see the defeatism the determination to see only the negative side of the Prime Minister’s management of the war while the more levelheaded commentators do take note of major achievements that were made for Israel’s security. The general tone however is one of gloom and like Sadat in his day Hamas draws a logical conclusion: if the Israelis feel that they’ve lost that means that we won.

***

But this is all a lot of smoke-and-mirrors nonsense. From a military point of view the situation is quite the opposite. As in the Yom Kippur War by all military parameters HaKadosh Baruch Hu has granted us a victory several sizes greater than our celebrated triumph in the Six Day War. The extent of the destruction in Gaza after seven days of bombardment is tremendous. According to the Times of London a thousand underground tunnels were in use smuggling in an endless stream of goods  from Egypt to Gaza: missiles and other ammunition cigarettes vehicles and even a lioness for the local zoo. All of those tunnels were destroyed and the cost of digging one new tunnel is at least 100 000 dollars. This is in addition to the demolition of barracks and government buildings the destruction of enemy weapons and the targeted killings of key terrorist leaders. All these losses should be enough to make the enemy think twice about moving toward another confrontation of this kind knowing that the IDF used only a fraction of the power at its disposal and hasn’t yet made a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip. 

All this being the case how did the picture get skewed? How did it happen that after taking such a beating Hamas feels victorious while we feel defeated? And why in fact do we feel this way?

This phenomenon has repeated itself in every war Israel has fought since the 1973 Yom Kippur War and onward to the First and Second Lebanon Wars in Operation Cast Lead and in Operation Desert Storm. Despite our military success in those struggles somehow we’ve been left with a sour taste in our mouths and a sense of loss a sense that we’ve missed the mark abandoned a task before it was finished and failed to achieve our goals. In short we win a technical victory but it’s accompanied by such dissatisfaction and lamentations that the enemy sees itself as the victor.

**

Why does this happen to us?

A friend of mine a talmid chacham with whom I often exchange opinions before writing answered the question in these words: “Because we don’t deserve to enjoy the fruits of victory.”

“Could you explain the meaning of that startling accusation?”

“Ceratinly” said my friend. “The actual victory our physical salvation is from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. As you correctly pointed out in your column last week where you quoted the pasuk from Sefer Melachim Hashem doesn’t wish His people to perish even if they are sunk deep in sin and their king is worshipping idols. HaKadosh Baruch Hu will save Am Yisrael without regard to their conduct or that of their leaders. So we’ll have a victory. But what we won’t have is enjoyment from our victory.”

“And why won’t we?”
“Very simple. The Torah tells us in Parshas Eikev that Eretz Yisrael is a land where ‘lo techsar kol bah you will not lack anything there.’ The commentators explain that this is a land where you will be able to enjoy a sense of satisfaction you will be happy with what you have and you will naturally feel joyful even if you don’t have everything. The Torah promises this blessing as long as the Jewish People’s conduct is in keeping with its laws. You see what I mean?”

“Nu?”

“Nu what? It’s so obvious. This is why our generation doesn’t feel any sense of satisfaction with its successes. We don’t deserve it. We win victories but we’re still left with a sour taste in our mouths.”

“Who doesn’t deserve it?”

“All of us. Religious people chareidi people secular people. Everybody.”

Food for Thought

Joy resides mainly in the heart

And the heart cannot be joyful

Until a person removes the crookedness in his heart

(Rebbe Nachman of Breslov)