Israel must destroy Hamas for its own sake and to preserve its credibility as ally of Sunni states in their conflict with Iran.
By Dr. Michael Wise, INN Dec 1, 2023, 12:06 PM (GMT+2)
Victory in a war requires either a peace treaty, unconditional surrender, or totally neutralizing the enemy. The World heretofore has not permitted an Israel victory. The fact that Israel has been prevented from ever winning a war has encouraged its enemies to try try and try again! Ending wars with armistices, ceasefires and pauses guarantees that the next war will be around the corner.
The 1947-48 War of Independence ended in series of ceasefire agreements with Egypt (Rhodes, February 1949), Lebanon (Rosh ha-Nikrah, March 1949), Jordan (Rhodes, April 1949), and Syria (Ma?anayim, July 1949). No Peace Agreements, no recognition of Israeli victory, just Green Lines, Blue Lines, and No lines.
Israel success in the Sinai campaign of 1956 ended when the United States and the Soviet Union forced Israel and the IDF to evacuate the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. Troops of the United Nations Emergency Force were posted on the Egyptian side of the frontier and at Sharm el-Sheikh to guarantee free passage of Israeli shipping through the Straits of Tiran. No victory.
The Six-day War in 1967 ended when a United Nations-brokered ceasefire took effect before Israel was allowed to complete its spectacular victory and was rewarded with the three No’s of Khartoum and the UN branding of Disputed Territories.
The Yom Kippur War ended 25 October 1973, with a ceasefire imposed by the international community. Again, as soon as Israel completed its encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army and Suez City, bringing them within 100 kilometres (62 miles) of Cairo, Israel was denied a Victory!
The world cannot allow the Jewish State to be victorious.
The first Lebanon War began in June 1982 after numerous murderous attacks when the PLO occupied southern Lebanon. Israel drove the PLO out of southern Lebanon and with international help, Arafat and the PLO escaped to Tunisia. After complex involvement in Lebanese internal conflicts and in response to international pressure Israel withdrew in 1985 to Southern Lebanon and ultimately under Ehud Barak left entirely. No victory. No reliable UNIFIL force. Israel’s failure to be victorious empowered Hizballah.
There have been 5 Gaza/Israel Wars: Operation Summer Rains (2006) – in response to the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Operation Cast Lead (2008) – in response to rocket fire from Gaza, Operation Pillar of Defense (2012) – in response to rocket fire from Gaza, Operation Protective Edge (2014) – in response to the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas, and Operation Guardian of the Walls (2021) – sparked by clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. These wars ended with ceasefires mediated and imposed on Israel by Egypt and the United States. No victories. Each time, Hamas was thrown a life line to try another attack.
These ceasefires before October 7, allowed Hamas to continue governance of Gaza. And it allowed Hamas to expand its rocket arsenal, military armaments, build tunnels and prepare and train for the Black October catastrophe.
President Biden and the US State Department have taken advantage of Israel’s potential need for support should another front in the North open up to insist that Israel agree to “humanitarian pauses” in return for hostages. They and others are pressuring Israel into a permanent ceasefire.
Remarkably, Israel has been forced to send Mossad director David Barnea to meet in Qatar, Hamas’ primary supporter in the last decade, with USA CIA Director William Burns to submit to Hamas demands for extending the “pause” negotiations. The pause must not morph into a permanent ceasefire. This time, Israel must ignore outside pressure and must have a clear irreversible objective: Total Victory.
Israel must eliminate Hamas and remove Hamas from power and free the Hamas abducted hostages. Unfortunately, destroying Hamas risks killing hostages held in the huge tunnel complex and elsewhere. As the humanitarian pause is extended to secure the release of additional hostages it must not be extended to a permanent cease fire.
That scenario has played 5 times with Hamas only to lead to greater violence and catastrophic barbarism. Israel military has declared that the path to rescuing the hostages is continuing ongoing massive assault on Hamas terrorists. Hopefully, this time Israel will ignore the hysteria and blind worldwide support for Hamas and demands for another ceasefire. Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Gallant, and opposition leader Gantz have committed to finally winning a war and destroying the Hamas enemy.
Netanyahu compared the future situation in Gaza to the Allies’ occupation of Germany and Japan after their surrender to end World War II. Netanyahu said, “Once we defeat Hamas, we have to make sure that there’s no new Hamas, no resurgence of terrorism, and right now the only force that is able to secure that is Israel.”
The US administration also insists that Israel must not undermine what all observers understand to be a delusional two-state solution with Gaza united with Judea and Samaria. It is understood that such a solution bringing Jibril Rajoub and other leaders of the Palestinian Authority who broadcast that the October 7th massacre was justified and that a similar attack could be expected in Judea and Samaria would be outrageous. Allowing continuing existence of the PA and facilitating another Hamas victory is a clear recipe for an ultimate catastrophe imperiling Israel’s veritable existence.
All Abraham Accord signators, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, oil-producing Gulf Arab states and other potential allies of Israel understand that a drawn-out Gaza conflict could breed radicalization across the wider Middle East. They are terrified that another “permanent” ceasefire will allow Hamas to survive and claim a spectacular victory. Each of these countries is gravely concerned that the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent of Hamas, and other radical terrorist groups will view Hamas success and seek to emulate Hamas success and totally destabilize the region.
Furthermore, Israel cannot lose again. It must preserve its credibility as a potent ally of Sunni Arab states in their long-term conflict with Shiite Iran.
Until now, the threats of Arab oil boycotts, global anti-Zionism/antisemitism, combined with the shock of a powerful resurgent Jewish State successfully fighting its enemies have denied Israeli victories and prolonged conflicts with its neighbors.
This time Israel must be victorious and eliminate Hamas and free the abducted hostages. Only then can the vision of a New Middle East be realized.
Dr. Michael Wise is a founder and investor in numerous technology companies. He is a graduate of YU and holds a PhD .in Theoretical Physics from Brandeis U., is the author of Israel demography study (BESA).and has published numerous articles about Israel sovereignty and demographics in Judea and Samaria. mlwise@gmail.com
@ Peloni
On a lighter note:
@Sebastien
I think they are probably both limited and complicated, but not non-existent while being most certainly unavoidable.
America has taken a hostile position to Israel’s need to eliminate the threat from Iran, and Israel must act accordingly. It will be complicated, probably messy, and possibly costly, but Israel’s future is not comiserate with a nuclear Iran, nor with the existence of the Iranian terror crescent.
Mossad team recalled from Qatar
Mossad director David Barnea has recalled agents from Qatar after negotiations with Hamas broke down.
Israel National News
Israel National News
Dec 2, 2023, 7:55 PM (GMT+2)
This is encouraging news. Israel has apparently drawn the line on the sand between itself and the Blinken-Biden plan for a “permanent cease fire” that would leave Hamas permanently in charge of Gaza
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@Sebastien
Regarding the hasbara gained by challenging the UN to make Israel a member of the UNSC, I think it is a novel approach to be certain. Ironically, think of all the wars which could be prevented if, as a permanent member of the UNSC, Israel might use its position to force every nation going to war to fight with the insane tactic of knocking before bombing while taking responsibility for enemy non-combatents during its wars.
On a more serious note, I think such a move would be used by Israel’s enemies to cast Israel as attempting to seize control of the world as they suggest is already ongoing. Still, while it is true that as you note, it has little chance of doing more than ridiculing Israel’s enemies in the UN, nearly every vote in the UN has shown that there are too few members of the UN who do not already vote against Israel even on the most ridiculous of measures and and on the most absurd condemnations.
I think that there are more useful outreaches to be made on more meritable battlefields than can be gained from ridiculing the well entrenched Liberalists elements controlling the power within the UN, an organization which was founded upon an evil purpose of diminishing the power of individual nation-states, which diametrically opposes the Jewish nationalist credo upon which Israel was founded and for which Israel continues to fight. In fact, it would be useful for Israel to realign itself away from America and towards Russia or China as recognition of the realignment which America has made towards Iran. Indeed, the lack of any geopolitical dexterity by Israel in dealing with the Americans is the very reason why American elites complacently abuse the US-Israeli relationship. Hence, I think it would be a markedly useful point of Hasbara as well as geopolitical strategy to strengthen the weakening ties with those nations who veto might be used to frustrate any move by America against Israel at the UN.
Just my own thoughts, of course.
Peace trieaties never end wars. At most, they are intended to legitimate the regularize and legalize the results of wars that have already been resolved on the battlefield. Whenever treates attempt to achieve a “compromise peace” in which one or both sides make concessions thst do not reflect the results on the battlefield, these treaties always fail.
@Peloni So would you say Bibi’s choices are limited?
@Sebastien
Regarding weapon resupply, I think Israel will remain dependent upon the US for its parts and replacements, and this is a difficult point which I do not see Israel overcoming. This being stated, Ted noted recently that shells are Israel’s greater dependency with the US, and to this extent I think there is reason to believe that Israel could work around the US if needed.
As Vivarto and others have noted, India would be a good potential from which to contract an alternate source of munitions. India is an integral member of BRICS, but unlike the US aligned nations, which act in accord with US interests, the BRICS nations act according to the national interests of the respective nations instead. Indeed, India is a nation which is exclusively motivated by its own interests and Modi in particular has done well at resisting US pressures while also ignoring outright threats against India from the reckless regime in Washington. The question which remains in my mind is whether India, a historic ally of the Pals going back decades, would be comfortable arming Israel to complete its war against the Hamas. Notably, Modi has been quite clear in its support for Israel, which was surprising to see. So the possibility certainly does exist, and to be certain Israel has become very closely aligned with India in recent years and one of the areas of their mutual interest has been in the area of defense. Still, it should be note that India cites Tel Aviv as Israel’s captial, and describes part of Israel’s land mass as being Palestine, but like Israel, India has faced its own Islamist slaughters and still acts to deal with terrorist attacks against its people. So India provides a good prospect for Israel, but the global pro-Hamas ground game is focused upon Israel murdering the Pal civilians, and this is something which Modi would have to be willing to contest or at least ignore should he be willing to become Israel’s source for shell resupply.
Aside from the shells, however, the replacement parts for the US weapon systems, such as the F35s which needs replacement parts with every flight, will be a significant issue for Israel to overcome. No doubt, ingenuity and patch quilt tactics may be useful to a point, but, should the US even just delay needed shipments, the lack of timely replacement parts could have a significant impact upon Israel’s situation. There is no rational calculus in my mind that Israel can/will reasonably replace its American sourced weapon systems which are an integral asset in its success so far in this war. The consequence of this conclusion is that, at least to this extent, Israel is going to remain dependent upon the US, at least for the current time.
@Peloni Israel’s dependence on the U.S. for weapons resupply seems to be the problem. But, aside from Iron Dome, my reading is that it is mainly precision weapons that make it possible to minimize collateral damage that Israel can’t provide herself. So, ironically, if the Biden administration fails to resupply the IDF, it will be forced to do what the U.S. and every other country does in war, which is what the Biden administration hypocritically says it wants to prevent.
But, Israel has the capability to go it alone if need be. The only other concern being U.N. Security Council sanctions which is why I suggested – in a nod to Felix for whose benefit, I was seeking some kind of use for Trotsky’s tactics, I suggested that, purely as an awareness building tactic, knowing that it could never happen under the present system even though it should in principle, which is what is meant by “transitional,” we could demand as a matter of right, in doing hasbara, that Israel should be on the Security Council because all the UN ever does is unjustly persecute Israel even to the point of threatening her very survival.
Or so it seems to me. I’d like to know your opinion.
But, the first question is the more important one. Can Israel shrug off weapons resupply from the U.S. if need be, now? I see that the conditional $14 billion that the Biden proposed authorizing didn’t go through because of all the add ons, which is, incidentally, how the U.S. wound up not joining the League of Nations that President Wilson had initiated when he opposed his own bill because of the add ons by his Republican opposition.
Of course, if it really wanted to get nasty, the U.S. could threaten to take away not-for profit status or even criminalize voluntary contributions to Israel as Eisenhower threatened in ’56. Israel really needs to become as independent as possible from American Jewry, (and 88 percent of all Jews live in these two countries) as well.
Dr. Wise’s article is helpful in identifying every conflict in which, to the Islamists, THEY HAVE WON. Seeing things from their perspective, whenever Israel backs down from total victory, they have won a David and Goliath battle.
In addition as @dreuveni points out, Israel is going to need to have the same victory over the Palestinians in J&S, because they will be next up to achieve a surprise mass killing and torture of innocent Israelis. They believe there are NO innocent civilians in Israel. They believe every single Israeli no matter how old or how young are “occupying soldiers” who are threatening them.
The original plan for battle from Iran’s point of view was for Hamas to attack Israel in the south, then the Palestinians attack Israel from J&S, then Hezbollah to attack Israeli from the north, and then Israel would fall. But the Hamas decided to attack too soon. That is why when they requested aid from Iran (prior to the hostage deal discussions), the Iranian ayatollahs told Hamas that they would not help them.
This battle plan can still be enacted, even if Hamas is destroyed. This is what Israeli leaders need to plan for, and if necessary, they will need to get weapons from places outside the US, as Biden has already threatened Israel that they are running out of time.
If Israel allows Biden to keep it from winning, it will be the first country in three years not to tell Sleepy Joe to go f*ck himself.
Isn’t Dr. Wise missing something important? Hamas is embedded in Judea & Samaria too so killing every last Hamasnik in Gaza won’t touch a hair of those in J&S. They will still be around doing what they enjoy most while their leaders relax in Turkey and the UAE.