In the battle of proxies, Israel did better than Hamas—but at a huge cost.
You know the experience. Your kid has a friend over. The friend is a wild Tasmanian Devil and is laying waste to your home. But out of a need for good relations with the kid’s parents, you never berate or punish him. Your child gets the screams, and any threats of punishments are directed at your hapless child. Thus, we find the story transposed to Gaza. Hamas once again found its uniforms under the rubble and came out in force to police the areas of the strip vacated by the IDF. They beat and killed Palestinians who dared to question their rule. They got into firefights with other families that wish to challenge its rules. It no doubt will go back to stealing aid and charging the locals for food—which the U.S. program does not. In short, Israel was blamed for murder, starvation, humiliation and destruction. Now that Hamas is doing the real killing, starving, and humiliating, there is an eerie silence on the left. I have not heard any protests over Hamas killing people in the streets for taking food or questioning the group’s rule. Only Israel gets the garbage treatment, while Hamas is coated in Teflon.
It’s hard to declare winners in wars that do not end in clear outcomes. The Allies won World War II. Korea was pretty much a draw and Vietnam a loss—though I have heard one theory that the willingness of the U.S. to fight so far from home convinced the commies to limit their future foreign interventions. Israel absorbed a blow that had not been recorded since the Holocaust. The intrepid New York Times has told us that they have the official instructions from Yahya Sinwar that his invaders should murder, destroy, rape, and plunder—and record the gore in detail. Wow, I thought that they were just making it up as they went from house to house. Israel came back and destroyed most of the built Gaza, killed apparently 58,000 Hamas operatives and another 9,000 civilians. In addition, Israel crushed Hezbollah, asserted itself in Syria, gave the Houthis a bloody nose, and wiped out much of Iran’s nuclear and missile capability. As both Hamas and Israel are on the leash of their benefactors, each faced potential external vetoes. The U.S. could (under Biden) limit weapons or jawbone Israel to stop attacking Iran (Trump), while Iran could tell Hamas to keep fighting, while Qatar could turn on or off its money spigot. As controlled entities go, Israel came out on top. When the hostages come home, Israel will still hold over 50 percent of Gaza, including all of the border contact regions. And Israel will not have to surrender any more land unless there is measurable progress in Gaza’s rehabilitation. Let me laugh for ten minutes and then return to this article.
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I remember when Israel created the Lavi fighter in the 1980s. There were a few copies produced, and those involved in the project claimed that the fighter had incredible performance. The continuation with the Lavi depended on the Pentagon support, and the U.S. pulled the plug, in part out of fear for export markets for the F-16. Sure, Israel received as compensation dozens of excellent U.S. fighters but the events surrounding the Lavi showed the ultimate dependence of Israel on the U.S. for its defense needs. The 1981 attack on the Iraqi reactor led to Ronald Reagan commenting that “boys will be boys,” and the U.S. officially condemned the attack. Think if Iraq had had nuclear bombs before Desert Storm...Israel has for decades promised to wean itself off of U.S. aid and thus make its own decisions based on its security considerations. Not happening. The U.S. makes the F-35; Israel provides the U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin with tons of combat data. Israel cannot go into the fighter business, and its Dolphin submarines and surface ships are made in Germany. Israel is not going to become an independent defense powerhouse due to the relatively small size of the country and tax base. How many billions were thrown at the B-2 and F-35 before a single copy was ready to be produced? Israel does its best to be a good proxy, following U.S. expectations while pushing the envelope to take care of its own business. Possibly the most important thing that Israel did in this war was to use Caterpillar D-9 armored tractors to destroy most of Rafah, Jabalya, Khan Younis, and Gaza City. Had Israel fought Hamas and left most of the enclave intact, Hamas would have been empowered to clean things up and do another, bigger attack in a few years. Now they have between 5 and 10 years to clean up the place. And Israel will not help. Israeli planes recently destroyed hundreds of Hezbollah tractors and the like so as to prevent any rebuilding of southern Lebanon without a comprehensive agreement in place. Palestinian tractors will face a similar fate.
As I write, the first living hostages are being released and Donald Trump has landed in Israel. Israel will no longer have to take hostages into military consideration prior to any future IDF activity. Hamas has put back on its uniforms and is using extreme force to reestablish its control of the part of Gaza which Israel does not currently hold. I cannot imagine the group disarming, leaving the strip of its own accord, and allowing for a new form of government to exist. As such, I still don’t expect the agreement to get past the first phase of hostage return/ IDF pullback. Israel might be forced to move further back with fake claims of changes on the ground, and it is my hope that Israel has learned enough not to fall for such lies. This was one of the major faults with the Oslo Accords. Everyone—including Israel—pretended that things were moving along when in reality the Palestinians were making plans to destroy Israel militarily. The second intifada was like October 7, 2023: it was meant to destabilize Israeli society through the mass murder of innocent citizens and the end of political, military and economic confidence. Israel won that one as well, but as many a victor, it paid a heavy price of killed and injured. Iwo Jima was a “W” for the U.S. but involved the loss of 7,000 Marines and more than twice as many injured.
The Palestinians and many other Muslims do not accept the existence of the state of Israel. Even though 20 percent of Israel’s population is Arab and there is freedom of practice for all religions, Jew haters have no plan that involves a continued state of Israel. Even the largest U.S. teachers’ union just sent out 3 million maps with “Palestine” written conveniently where the state of Israel currently exists. As Israel is a client state of the United States, it can advance its interests and protect its people within the context of the rules set by the reigning president and Congress. The people of Israel truly love the United States, and they particularly adore President Trump. The hostages presently coming home would not be doing so under a President Biden or Harris. No American leader has given Israel more support or latitude in fighting for its existence. The president declared on Air Force One that the war is over. Maybe this round, but Hezbollah, the Palestinians, and Iran are planning their next steps. If one does not wipe out his enemies, they will be back. Israel gave them a pretty good beating. But they won’t stop until they are destroyed.
Like a boxer at the end of 15 rounds, Israel won on points. Over 900 soldiers died during the past two years. Islamic ideology does not allow for peace. Now is the calm between the storms.
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