Israel is employing a doctrine of attrition to counter the terrorism of incendiary kites – the opposite of the traditional doctrine of decisiveness behind the IDF's greatest victories. When employing a doctrine of attrition, victory is predicated on deterring the enemy (without vanquishing him physically) through erosion and fatigue, mainly emotional and psychological, over a prolonged period.
The source of Hamas' strength lies in international law, which is based on the Judeo-Christian ethical principle of sanctifying human life. But Hamas blatantly violates this principle by bombing civilians, using humans as shields and as "bangalores" to breach the border fence, launching incendiary kites and balloons at civilian areas, turning schools and hospitals into military bases and more. Israel, which is beholden to international law, is powerless with a Military Advocate General scampering among the troops.
To neutralize the "defensive barrier" that international law affords Hamas, Israel must launch a multipronged campaign – diplomatic, ethical-cultural and legal – perhaps its most intensive fight since securing the majority vote for its independence in 1948. The objective of the campaign would be to nullify the right of the lawbreaker in Gaza (along with Hezbollah) to claim protection under international law.
There are two arguments for stripping Hamas of its legal immunity. The first is that international law provides Hamas cover for sanctifying death – the polar opposite of the Western ethic of sanctifying life as a basis for social order, which also forms the foundation for the laws of war. The second argument is that upholding the laws of war, while Hamas violates those laws, forces Israel to play by Hamas' inhumane ethic of death – which in turn makes Israel's defenders and Hamas' supporters in the West partners to this coercion.
It is not ethical to kill the enemy's children, who serve as "human shields" for their fathers; but it also isn't ethical for Israeli children to be killed instead of the enemy's children. It isn't ethical to kill "protesters" rushing the Gaza border fence, but it also isn't ethical to allow them to breach the fence and kill Israeli soldiers and civilians. It isn't ethical to kill children who launch thousands of incendiary kites at Israel, but it also isn't ethical to let them pursue the "scorched earth" policies of their forefathers.
The universal moral building blocks of the Geneva Conventions obligate a person to defend his own life because, if he doesn't, he is culpable in his own death and, similar to his murderers, is in violation of the "thou shalt not murder" principle. Israel's tragedy is that even if "rise and kill first" is legitimate – Hamas forces Israel to kill children and teenagers! In other words, it imposes on Israel its inhumane behavior which rejects a culture of sanctifying life.
The world must be told, in politically incorrect terms, that a war of civilizations is being fought on the Gaza-Israel border. More precisely, it is a war between civilization and people who have abandoned it. It is reminiscent of the war along Hadrian's Wall, whose failure drove the West into 500 years of the Middle Ages. In Gaza, Israel isn't just protecting its own people and land. It is also defending the principles sanctifying life, which its forefathers brought to the Western world thousands of years ago.
Winston Churchill, who strongly supported the Balfour Declaration, said of these values: "We owe to the Jews a system of ethics which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all wisdom and learning put together. On that system and by that faith there has been built out of the wreck of the Roman Empire the whole of our existing civilization."
He also said the creation of a Jewish state would, "from every point of view, be beneficial, and would be especially in harmony with the truest interests of the British Empire."
In deference to this role, Israel must stop being defensive and apologizing. It has to speak out to the people of the world, some of whom are mired in a state of profound moral malaise, and caution them that support for the Palestinians' inhumane behavior strengthens the culture of death, facilitates its hasty spread across the globe (including Europe) and threatens to drag mankind backward.
