Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon continued to strike a critical blow to Hamas yesterday while trying to both avoid reconquering the Gaza Strip and keep themselves open to a reasonable cease-fire that would lead to regional demilitarization. It's difficult for them to navigate their way to progress in a democratic country in the 21st century. The country exits in a double friction -- one with those who would destroy Israel at home and abroad, and the second created when positive interests preach and propose absolute solutions, as if they are obvious. Netanyahu and Ya'alon, along with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz are not only directing the operation, they also have to explain and defend a policy that is difficult to justify unless it turns out well, and even then only in hindsight. Yesterday, at the end of a dark day of war, with worried civilians and other people making serious, hasty suggestions about other ways of fighting the war, the top trio showed restraint and responsibility. This is how it will be described in the history books, even if time eventually proves that it was a mistake and that Israel should have entered Gaza full force, and even much earlier. The three have to project a sense that they are working quietly and confidently, that they know what lies before them and they are not deterred by the difficulties in the international arena and the political debate in Israel. Yesterday, they faced a particularly tough test without losing their senses. This is as it should be. And this was in a reality that presents difficulties not only on the war front but also internationally. Not that anyone believes that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry wants to serve Hamas, but he is naïve and played into the hands of Qatar and Turkey at the astonishing price of hurting Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, and especially Egypt. Kerry isn't motivated by malice, but rather by a mistaken turn that might have caused a cease-fire on reasonable terms was delayed and the conflict to drag into another bloody round. The Jews will survive this, too. We are a people who have known suffering, a people who have known bloodshed. In the past 100 years, the people have learned that the shield of the IDF saves lives, but at the price of lost life. "The Land of Israel was bought in blood," they know how to say, and on days like yesterday, learn how to implement it. But success is a long way away. Each side defines success differently. For a terrorist organization, surviving is enough. A democratic nation needs a classic victory. The lopsidedness that characterizes wars in the 21st century means a situation is possible in which both sides leave the battle, proclaiming victory. In their own mind. However, the people of Hamas have to read the Israelis correctly. They are deeply rooted. They aren't strangers in their land. Their sensitivity doesn't displace their determination. The Jewish elite is prepared to pay the price. Yesterday I met with former Shin Bet security agency head Ami Ayalon to discuss his exciting work at the Israel Democracy Institute. Somehow we got into a conversation about his protegee Haim Sturman, who was killed near him in the legendary battle of Green Island in Egypt in 1969. The soldier's grandmother was Atara Sturman, Ayalon said admiringly. I knew her. She lost a husband, a son, and two grandsons in Israeli wars, and forbade the people who came to their funerals to shed a tear. This people is stronger than we appear to the enemy. Than we appear to foreigners. Than we appear to ourselves.
