There was a time when Israel fought wars using devastating force with the goal of nothing less than a complete, decisive victory over its enemies. But that time has long since passed. The resounding, arguably miraculous victories that Israel achieved in wars like the 1948 War of Independence and the 1967 Six-Day War now seem like ancient history.
Indeed, for the last 30 years, Israel has responded to attacks by its enemies, not with the kind of overwhelming force that it once used to subdue its enemies, but with compromises, concessions, or, at best, very limited, haphazard military operations. This strategy has led to one disaster after another.
In the 1990s, Israel agreed to the Oslo Accords and relinquished control over most of the Gaza Strip and nearly all major cities in Judea and Samaria. In return, Israel got the Second Intifada, during which Palestinian terrorists senselessly murdered one thousand Israelis. In 2000, Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon. In return, Israel got the Second Lebanon War, which Hezbollah started by bombarding Israel with rockets as they entered Israeli territory, killed eight IDF soldiers and abducting two more. In 2005, Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza Strip. In return, Israel got nearly two decades of rocket attacks, the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, and finally, the October 7 massacre, the worst atrocity committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Israel desperately needs a return to the strategy of achieving absolute victory over its foes. And as the expression goes, "There's no time like the present," when Israel is now facing war on multiple fronts.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of pushback against such a strategy, both within and outside Israel. Push-back from naïve members of Israel's political class, now orchestrating the mass demonstrations calling for a ceasefire that would keep Hamas in charge of Gaza and not guarantee the liberation of all remaining hostages, setting the stage for another catastrophe resembling October 7.
These demonstrations are counterproductive, to say the least. They only encourage Hamas to extract more concessions from Israel. Furthermore, according to a recent poll by the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), 55% of Israelis believe that the demonstrations are being held not to free the hostages but to overthrow the government.
Besides, most Israelis are not in the mood for further compromise or concessions. Indeed, 62% of Israelis polled by JNS oppose a ceasefire deal with Hamas, and 61% agree with the sentence: "Only military pressure on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and planned military actions including hostage rescue operations can lead to the release of the hostages."
There is also pushback against a strategy of decisive victory from Israel's Western allies, particularly its strongest ally, the United States. The Biden Administration has repeatedly said that Israel cannot defeat Hamas. Wrong. Biden and company just don't want Hamas defeated because destroying the terrorist group would interfere with their agenda of appeasing Iran, the leading sponsor of global terrorism – the tyrannical regime to whom Biden has given billions of dollars in sanctions relief. Money that Iran has used to accelerate its nuclear weapons program and fund its terrorist proxies –Hamas, Hezbollah, and Yemen's Houthis.
Throughout his term in office, Biden has acted like British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain did before World War II. Chamberlain believed he could appease Hitler. Thus, he let Nazi Germany have a chunk of Czechoslovakia as part of the infamous Munich Agreement, which he held aloft in his hand proclaiming, "peace for our time," believing he had stopped Hitler from making any new conquests.
Six months later, Nazi Germany took over all of Czechoslovakia. And six months after that, the Nazis invaded Poland, triggering WWII. So much for peace in our time. Appeasement and compromise did not convince Hitler and Nazi Germany to choose peace over conquest, nor will either tactic persuade Iran and its proxies – today's Nazis – to do so.
Fortunately, once WWII began, the Allied powers strived for absolute victory over Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Indeed, they inflicted such devastation upon both countries that when the war was finally over, the populations of each country realized that continuing to support their respective ruling regimes was futile and would only lead to disaster. Thus, after Germany and Japan surrendered, their populations offered no further resistance and eventually chose leadership committed to democracy and peace. Eighty years later, Germany and Japan are vibrant democracies, not to mention economic powerhouses.
Similarly, Israel must pursue no less than a decisive victory against its enemies, beginning with Hamas and Hezbollah. Recent poll data from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) actually shows that the devastation Israel has already inflicted on the Gaza Strip is beginning to change the minds of its people and their support for Hamas. This change was originally not recorded as Hamas had doctored PCPSR polling data to inflate their support. But now, thanks to the efforts of Israel's finest in the IDF, we know the truth.
Whereas 57% of Gazans supported Hamas back in December 2023, just 31% supported the terrorist group in March of this year. But perhaps what is most encouraging is that in contrast to December last year, when 56% of Gazans supported armed resistance, just 28% said the same in March of this year. In fact, by March, more than two-thirds of Gazans favored either political negotiations or non-violent resistance to Israel to achieve Palestinian aims. This is clear evidence that what happened during WWII, when the German and Japanese people began realizing the futility of supporting their respective genocidal regimes, is now happening in Gaza.
Recent history shows that strong military pressure, not concessions and appeasement, leads to peace. In fact, the use of strong military pressure is what has allowed Israel to achieve peace with some of its Arab neighbors. After decades of suffering devastating losses in wars with Israel, several Arab states concluded that trying again and again to destroy the Jewish state was futile. Thus, they gradually pursued peace with Israel. First, Egypt in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994, and then the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan in 2020-2021. In all these cases, Israel did not make unreasonable concessions that would place its security at risk.
Only through strength has Israel defeated its enemies and achieved peace in the past, and only through strength will it continue to do so now.
