We could have told you. In response to the UN ceasefire passing, rockets have been fired at Ashdod for the first time in two months. Hamas and the terrorists are feeling strong as a consequence of bamboozling the West, with the US, Great Britain, and Canada now in their pockets aligning with Iran, Moscow, and Beijing. Israel is the sole, brave fighter against Islamic murderers. If I didn’t believe in the God of Israel, I’d be really worried.

Thankfully, I do. I have faith that the events to come cannot be rationally foreseen. To have faith means to believe in the process, not just the immediate outcome. It means we have to have patience, and continue to do whatever we can to bless the people and country of Israel.

It isn’t easy. Yesterday, rioters in the Jordanian capital chanted:

“Abu Obaida, [ spokesman for the military wing of Hamas] we have responded to your call! All of Jordan is with you.” Chanting crowds of Hamas supporters are calling on King Abdullah to “open the borders” with Israel so they can pour through and fight alongside Hamas.

The only thing holding back Nasrallah in the north was American pressure. Now that that has collapsed, Israel awaits the consequences from that quarter. Today the Avivim Orchard in Western Galilee went up in flames after being hit by two Hezbollah rockets.

After ten days, representatives of the Mossad and the Shabak negotiating with Hamas in Qatar for the hostage release have returned home after Hamas completely rejected the American compromise proposals, hardening their stance and seizing their advantage in light of Joe’s collapsing will to back Israel. This is what they are demanding: A comprehensive ceasefire, a withdrawal from the Strip, the return of the displaced to their homes and a “real” prisoner exchange deal. In other words, that we lay down and die.

We need to stop negotiating with terrorists. Yes, many will die, mostly them. This is just the kind of situation Joe Biden is so good at achieving. Just look at his Afghanistan withdrawal.

Israel needs to come up with its own “compromise” proposals, which should be non-negotiable and written in the language of terrorist-speak. I don’t see anyone deploring Moscow’s treatment of terrorists, which they’ve proudly posted online. Israel needs to do something similar. Look how just the false rumors of IDF rapes have cowed the Gazan population! You are not dealing with people you can talk to, or even understand. You need to speak to them in their own language, which as civilized people is hard and distasteful for us Israelis to use. If they just thought we would emulate what they did to us on October 7, they would surrender en masse and release our suffering countrymen and women. But do we have the guts? In the meantime, with our soldiers and reservists on the battlefields, attempts to draft yeshiva students who have appropriated for themselves the rarefied perch of un-draftable full-time Talmud scholars, financed by our tax dollars, is heating up into a civil war. As President Herzog said this week: “A year ago, I warned of the danger of social conflict and division. After October 7, we are in a social emergency, we cannot be satisfied with just containing the differences, we must act to repair and rebuild the severe division.”

The people of Israel are determined that every citizen do their share to protect us. The inability of the government to convince the haredi parties to support a fair and equitable solution to the problem of military service is a greater threat to our country than all of our enemies combined. It is this internal war I fear most.

The High Court has given the government until the end of the month to come up with a law before it passes judgement that will institute a universal draft, cancelling all exemptions that are not fair and equal to the entire population.

I can’t really envision a scenario where this problem is solved peacefully and harmoniously, leaving Israeli society unified. Perhaps the Chief Sephardic Rabbi’s outrageous suggestion that if such a law passes all the yeshiva students should leave the country is not such a bad idea after all. If they won’t participate in the life of the country, let them live abroad and at least cease to be a burden on the Israeli taxpayer. Let their parents – who raised them this way – support them. Let them try living amongst the French, the Canadians, and the Americans, who have shown just how much they love Jews. Perhaps they might learn something and come back to Israel chastened and ready to fulfill their basic obligations as citizens, and as religious Jews, fulfilling the clear Biblical commandment that demands that “in a mitzva war [i.e. a war of defense] even a bride and groom under the wedding canopy take up arms and fight.”

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