What The Rebbe Told Bibi Netanyahu About A War In Lebanon

40 years ago on Simchat Torah of 1984 I was a  child of 10 years old and I was sitting on the   floor near the Rebbe's stage as Bibi netanyahu the  then UN Ambassador came with some other Israeli   dignitaries the Rebbe spoke to them for 45 minutes  though I have to tell you as a child sitting on   the floor with thousands of other people crammed  into the synagogue at 770 it felt like they were   talking for hours today I'd like to touch on three  points from the Rebbe related to what's been going   on in the North it's actually very tempting to try  and share 20 points but we'll stick to three for   today God willing both Prime Minister Netanyahu  and Alan Baker told us about that conversation   in Jem's My Encounter With The Rebbe Project and  part of it feels especially relevant today I said   Rabbi I would like to I came to see you and he  looked aside and he said just to see not to talk   and so we started talking and we had a 45-minute  conversation and the the people who were waiting   were very very impatient to put it mildly but it  was a a wonderful wonderful wonderful conversation   well he said you know you're going to this  house of Darkness the UN which was very very   unfriendly to Israel at the time and he said even  in the greatest Darkness if you light a candle it   spreads a great light that can be seen from afar  and of course he said to remember what I represent   who I represent to stand firmly and proudly for  Israel and the Jewish people the discussion was   between the Rebbe, Netanyahu and myself that  time prime minister Shamir was involved in   in negotiations to withdraw Israeli forces  from from Lebanon and you know the question   was whether Israel will withdraw or not and  here the and it was still it was still open   ultimately Israel withdrew but the Rebbe  it was was very insistent that that Israel   shouldn't withdraw in fact he said very several "Yad Chazaka U'zroah netuyah" we should go forward  and this is a message that that we should  bring to Shamir and he stressed this repeatedly   as something very important he says look you  shouldn't withdraw you you went into Lebanon in   self-defense because there was terrorism emanating  from Lebanese territory and and you're also in a   in a state of hostility with with Syria and if  need be if you have to continue going forward   even into Syrian territory then you should do it  and Israel should do it it's Israel's right you're   protecting Israel you're protecting Jews Israelis  and it's very important who knew how relevant   this advice would be all these years later now  an obvious thing we can all say is oh if only   we listened if only but the more important point  is today do what you need to do with full force   unless we stop making the same mistakes history  will God forbid repeat itself again the next   lesson comes from the beginning of Mivtzah Litani  was a 1978 operation to bring security to Israel's   northern border after a particularly horrific  terrorist attack when the PLO commandeered a   bus and massacred 30 of the passengers on top of  regularly launching rockets and artillery strikes   into Northern Israel the IDF moved into Lebanon  very quickly and very successfully established a   buffer zone to prevent further attacks on Purim  of that year March 23rd 1978 8 days after the   start of the operation they have praised the way  the action began but urged Israel's government to   continue doing whatever it takes to consolidate  their gains and continue to assure security if you want the victory to last you must  ignore outside pressures do what needs to   be done to assure security if you're going to  wait for the world's approval forget about it   now hopefully that's what we've been doing this  week but after you secure things by going in on   the ground or whatever the true Security Experts  determine as needed you need to be comfortable   to keep ignoring those who will be screaming  politely but firmly do what you need to do the   criticism and the pressure will come it has  come every single time in the past and that's   exactly where Israel has subsequently turned  a win into a loss including unfortunately in   the very place the Rebbe was warning them in  that talk in Lebanon by the way here's a clip   we found of General Avigdor Ben-Gal an absolute  hero from his actions during the Yom Kippur war   who was later the commander of the northern  command he devised and oversaw Mivtzah Litani now there's a third very important point of  the Rebbe that comes to mind today close your   eyes and jump back only a couple of weeks what  were we going to do with Lebanon 150,000 short   range medium range long range and Precision  guided missiles the situation seemed impossible   it was impossible what in the world were we  going to do now if you've already forgotten   the mind space we were in Google it the CEO of  Israel's electric company said Israel's entire   North will be uninhabitable the power was going  to collapse major damage to Israel's highways   people were going to be in their shelters  for days on end God forbid the carnage from   the salvos of thousands of well-aimed Rockets  was going to be massive and look where we are   today to me it seems there are some parallels  here to the summer of 1967 it was only 20 years   or so after the Holocaust the Jews were about  to be annihilated and there was no way around   the outcome of utter devastation and then as the  Reb described in one day everything turned around   with Mivtzah Moked the IAF's attack on Egypt's Air  Force and eventually the Syrian and Jordanian Air   Forces followed that and that launched the  sixth day war which Israel won resoundingly as this relates to today while we're not out  of the woods yet it seems obvious that Israel's   intelligence Services the Air Force the IDF  have done astounding work and we've dodged a   massive bullet but if we want to learn from  history there's something we need to be very   careful with here on dozens if not hundreds of  occasions there have begged Israel's leaders   to stay away from hubris not to swagger and to  remain humble hopefully by now we've learned our   lesson about where hubris and too much pride  can lead us God forbid so the beepers the   meticulous mapping of every missile launcher in  Lebanon the incredible Intelligence on the leaders   of Hezbollah and of course all of the people who  are endangering in way too many cases sacrificing   their lives to provide security and peace they  are real they are true they are necessary and   we owe every one of them a massive thank you  but it's important to understand how this has   worked repeatedly over the past 75 years when  we do what Torah directs us to do to protect   life and limb we achieve miraculous outcomes so  develop the most brilliant tactics and impeccable   intelligence capabilities enlist the finest  people the sharpest minds and then when we do   our utmost he crowns our work with miraculous  results May these Miracles keep on coming