Ex-Envoy Michael Oren rejoins IDF: "We're fighting the wrong war"

This is what brass balls looks like

You want to know what patriotism really is? What courage looks like? Israel's former Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, had traded in his diplomatic credentials for dog tags and a combat uniform. He has joined an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) rapid response counter-terrorism unit in a northern kibbutz. How many politicians do you know who would drop what they were doing and go into a battle zone currently under threat of attack by Iran? JD Vance, sure; Tom Cotton, yes. Maybe even a few Democrats, but all-in-all, what Oren has done is heroic and out of the norm for the typical politician.

Oren warned that the fall of the north of Israel would pose the most serious threat to the Jewish State's central heartland. He recently returned from Washington, DC with a delegation of displaced Israelis from the war-torn north for a series of talks and high-level meetings.

He blasted Biden administration officials for lacking adequate answers for the evacuees they met with, implying they expected the evacuees to simply accept living in close proximity to a terror threat, something they themselves wouldn't even consider had the shoe been on the other foot.

“No one is going to go back to living, say, in Metulla, which is literally a war zone with 150 houses destroyed and with Hezbollah on the other side of the fence,” Oren said. 

Hezbollah is the powerful Iran-sponsored terrorist group in Lebanon.  Oren cited army estimates that as much as 40 percent of Israelis evacuated in the north, numbering about 80,000 people, would not return home in the event of a ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza. 

Now imagine that shoe.

“We now know what terrorists on the other side can do to Israelis,” he added.

Oren believes Israel was misdirecting its focus with fighting in Gaza to the south, which is ruled by Hamas, and spending manpower and resources against the "wrong enemy." He said,  “We’re fighting the wrong war. We should focus our main energy on the north, which is a strategic threat. Hamas was and is a tactical threat. It’s not going anywhere.”

Hezbollah has a much stronger military and political influence and has been firing rockets, missiles and drones at northern Israel on a daily basis since October, when the Israel-Hamas war began in Gaza.

The attacks has forced Israelis living near the Lebanon border to flee to other parts of the country for safety. They had no choice.

Oren dismissed responses by world leaders and global press that targeted assassinations of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut and the biggest Hamasshole of all, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. He rejected claims that the elimination of these scumwafers would harm hostage negotiations and ruin chances for regional peace.

“The reaction of the world was extraordinary. By eliminating two mass murderers, they’re saying Israel has jeopardized peace. You can’t make this stuff up,” Oren said. “What foils the chances for a hostage agreement [with Hamas] and for regional stability is not standing up to terror and not fighting.”

“Leaders of the United States and the world should thank Israel for eliminating the murderer of not just Israelis, and of Palestinians, but the murder of Americans,” he added.

Oren rejected claims that Israel was not operationally or logistically prepared for an all-out war with Hezbollah. He pointed out that Israel has untapped resources ready for deployment. “We have conventional means that we’ve never used before, and we could use them now, like our submarine force,” he said, declining to go into more detail.

Kobi Levy, a resident of Kfar Blum who is part of the rapid response team alongside Oren, praised Oren's decision to put his uniform back on for the first time in over a decade. Oren fought in the First Lebanon War in 1982 in the Paratroopers Brigade.

According to Levy, many lawmakers and politically-affiliated groups, including the Brothers in Arms anti-government protest group, have briefly visited the kibbutz for what he termed “photo ops and empty promises.” 

Oren is not like those guys.

Oren, Levy said, “came with all his heart to listen. To us, the people of the north. He’s the only politician who understands exactly what the residents want.” He added that Oren wasn't above doing what needed to be done for the team, from overnight guard shifts to early morning drills. 

He predicted that Oren, who also served as a deputy minister in Israel’s 19th Knesset, had a “bright future” ahead of him should he make a return to the political life in Israel.

“I’m deeply impressed by the people here and their commitment to the north and to Israel,” Oren said.

“I’m not being sentimental; they are the embodiment of the Zionist ideal,” Oren added. “But the sense is that they’ve been forgotten.”

Let us not forget them and help where we can. I'm personally donating to an organization known as Feed Israel. They have a "good" rating by those agencies that rate these organizations and provide food and assistance to needy Israelis.

Am Yisrael Chai.

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