Letter from Company Commander in Gaza: Don’t succumb to American dictates

Upon the arrival in Israel of United States Secretary of State Blinkin last week, the commander of a reserve company serving in the Gaza Strip wrote a letter to Reut Ben Haim, the chairperson of the Order 9 movement (also called Tsav 9) that is blocking passage of trucks into Gaza in a fight against the transfer of humanitarian aid to Hamas as our hostages languish without food, water, and medicines and our soldiers risk their lives to protect us.

In the letter, he describes his feelings in the shadow of the war, attacking the dependence of the State of Israel on the United States.

The commander opened his letter:

We can tell ourselves that we hold territory, control operationally, launch attacks, and have a military advantage over Hamas.

But, he continued:

In practice, we are being undermined here; at the same time that a terrorist shoots at our soldiers – he looks up to the sky and sees humanitarian aid coming down to him.

Later in the letter he added:

We will tell ourselves that we have returned to Netzarim [Jewish community in Gaza until the unilateral disengagement in 2005], to hope that we are here to stay, but the way things are going, America is dictating what we are doing from A to Z, and the IDF has become an official subcontractor of the USA.

Regarding the transfer of aid, the company commander wrote:

Holding the corridor is holding a logistic axis, the logistic axis is for the construction of the American port. In other words, right now my soldiers and I are risking our lives to secure the axis which ultimately helps the enemy who tries at any time to destroy us.

He added:

How is it possible?! That after everything we’ve been through, after six months of being in the reserves, we’re busy helping the enemy? That’s not how you win. That’s not how the hostages will be returned. There is no other choice left – the people of Israel must admit: the Arab enemy is perhaps the physical enemy, the US is the conceptual enemy.

He concluded with:

It is possible to win even without the aid that [comes at a price that] endangers our existence. If we have a clear spirit and the certainty that we are right, even with minimal armaments we can be victorious.

The problem is with the perception that we cannot “swim” without the American “buoys”. We forgot that they were not with us from 1948 to 1967 — and they didn’t bomb the tracks on the way to Auschwitz in 1944 either. “Never again” is already an empty promise! The US makes sure that the existential threat to the Jewish people will remain forever.

He signed it, “Reserve Company Commander” because for now, he prefers not to be identifiable.

He does not want to be thrown out of the reserves, but insists Israelis must hear the truth as he and his soldiers experience it.