The reports from Gaza indicate that Hamas is in state of euphoria. If this is indeed the case, let us really try to understand why. Perhaps this is because its fighters, on a daily basis, are sustaining heavier losses than we are? Maybe it is because the terrorist organization feels isolated and strangled between Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, with only the blue sea along the Gaza shoreline providing some sort of horizon -- which also becomes immediately hidden behind our navy vessels? Or maybe it is because Hamas succeeded in sucking the IDF into the Gaza Strip (it claimed the IDF was afraid), consequently allowing the army to destroy the fruits of the terrorist organization's long and hard labor, the tunnels -- the primary and perhaps only contribution Hamas has made to the people of Gaza? And maybe Hamas is euphoric because Palestinian civilians were killed in Shujaiyya, after being used by the group as human shields? Between us, how much value does Hamas really place on human life, any life, even if it is Palestinian? The reports, as stated, claim that Hamas is in a state of euphoria, yet why do I get the impression that no other armed group in the world, including Boko Haram, would switch places with it today? Deep from his hole underground, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh knows very well that Hamas is done for, despite the euphoria. "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake," Napoleon said. And when Hamas erred we indeed did not interrupt. Hamas did not take into consideration that on the other side of the border was a successful Israeli formula, instituted way back in 1948 and which has been re-tested every few years: an army and a home front that converge into one powerful fist, steely on the outside and soft on the inside. Throughout the years the enemies have come and gone, and the wars have changed, yet one thing has remained the same: the spirit of our soldiers and the nation. Many sacred cows are slaughtered in our country -- but one, the most sacred and pure of them all, will never be allowed anywhere near the slaughterhouse because the people will not tolerate it. It is called the IDF. The world does not understand that while in many areas -- such as sports, the Eurovision song contest, or the world chess championship -- we need an external measure of our capabilities and our limits, when it comes to military capabilities and morality we have earned the right over the years to be our own judges. Show me another army in which so many commanders are wounded first. Show me an army in which the medical staff must tie the wounded to the beds so they do not escape the hospital to return to the front. Show me another army that is an integral part of a nation. And show me another army that warns the other side and takes so many precautions, to the point of putting its own soldiers' lives at risk. So the world and a tiny, negligible segment of our society claim the IDF is an immoral army and that our pilots are murderers. I'll take murderers such as these any day, thanks to whom these lines are being written in Hebrew. Because were it not for our pilots and soldiers, it is quite possible that this paper, were it even to exist, would be printed in Arabic. The war in Gaza is extremely frustrating. I wish we could be facing a real army that follows the rules to even a minimal extent. The limitations of force on one hand and the limitations of ethics on the other make this war almost impossible. For us, every funeral is like losing an entire world, because that is how it is when life is sanctified. In Gaza, on the other hand, death is sanctified. For us, every fallen soldier is a father or son, a brother or a friend. Every one bears a name we will remember for eternity, and we will thank the soldier for the life he or she sacrificed on our behalf. Because this is how it has always been: The soldier departs for the front and the civilian cares and worries for him, supporting him from the home front. This is precisely how it was in our previous wars, which always cost us too many sacrifices, even during the lightning war of 1967 in which 779 soldiers gave their lives. "The entire nation is an army, the entire country the front line," said David Ben-Gurion, and his words still hold true today. Hamas is euphoric because it is fighting behind civilians, but as the Nahal Brigade's commander said on Tuesday: "We are winning every encounter." It has been said that "without fear there is no courage." We are deathly afraid of losing our soldiers, but we have the courage to defeat our enemy once and for all, because this time the nation understands the sad, heavy price we must pay to prevent another round of fighting. The IDF has a code of ethics, but it also has a rule of thumb that is no less important, which is: Always win. Because we will not receive a second chance. So they say that Hamas is euphoric in Gaza? Let them be. They can have euphoria. We will have victory.
