US should stop micromanaging the Israeli war

Has the sad, inefficient, ineffectual record stopped American leaders not from merely advising the Israelis as to how to conduct their present war with Hamas, but from attempting to dictate strategy and tactics to them?

By  Walter E. Block  

One would have to go all the way back to 1945, 79 long years ago, to find a war that the US won. (Sorry, Grenada just does not count). Along the way, this country lost military confrontations in Korea, VietNam, Afghanistan and perhaps another half dozen other foreign military adventures, depending upon how you count.

Has this sad, inefficient, ineffectual record stopped American leaders not from merely advising the Israelis as to how to conduct their present war with Hamas, but from attempting to dictate strategy and tactics to them? Has there been any modesty involved in the not-too-subtle orders given to our most important ally in the Middle East? To ask these questions is to answer them, and the answer is, unfortunately, strongly in the negative.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been adamant that Israel has been acting inappropriately with regard to Gazan civilians. This, despite the fact that this country has undertaken great efforts to protect them with leaflet warnings. This, in the face of the fact that Hamas has embedded itself in this population, and uses these people as shields. They place rocket launchers in hospitals, schools, residential areas, and then bitterly complain when the IDF tries to protect Israeli citizens against such war crimes by attacking them.

For example, according to the BBC, “In the strongest and most specific US remarks yet, Mr Blinken said he’d told the Israeli government that it must avoid further mass displacement of Palestinians and damage to critical infrastructure, like hospitals, power stations and water facilities.” But that is precisely among the places where the enemy is located. Is Mr. Blinken in effect calling for the surrender of Israel? It is difficult to avoid this conclusion. Stated Mr. Netanyahu (paraphrase): “If Israel put down its weapons, there would be no more Israel and no more Jews in the Middle East. If Hamas put down its weapons (and released the hostages), there would be peace. Then, Blinken’s goal of protecting Gazans will have been attained.

There have been actual attempts on the part of the US to directly undermine Israeli efforts to conquer Hamas by aiding and abetting this terrorist organization. For example, the land of the free and the home of the brave have built a pier in Gaza, which was intended to facilitate the bringing of stores to Israel’s enemy. Happily, it does not look as if this plan will succeed due to engineering failures and bad weather.

Suppose that Canada had attacked the US in proportionate degree to the genocidal invasion that Hamas perpetrated upon Israel on that day of infamy, October 7, 2023. The US was now in the process of conquering The Great White North. Whereupon some third country, say, the United Kingdom, built a pier from the Atlantic Ocean to the nation to the north of the United States, so as to ease the transfer of food, medicines, water, electricity, etc., to that country. What would the US have done in response? It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that America would have declared war on England, and bombed that pier into smithereens. What the US tried to do in the Mediterranean near Gaza with this pier is the behavior of an ally?

The most recent American leader to pile on in this regard is not a member of the government but speaks out on behalf of the major media. He is Thomas Friedman of the New York Times who avers that “American Leaders should stop debasing themselves on Israel.” In his view, the improper communications emanate not from Uncle Sam to the Knesset, but in the very opposite direction. Those bossy kibbutzniks should stop bullying the Biden Administration if Friedman had his way. In his view, Israel is in a parlous state, about to be overwhelmed by the gargantuan powers of its enemies, and should sue for peace. One wonders what planet he occupies. Truth to tell, the IDF has been fighting with one hand behind its back for so many months, make that one and three-quarters hands. The truth is that if this military did not have to look over its shoulder to world opinion, fomented by commentators of the sort mentioned herein, the war would have been over quite a while ago, the hostages released, and quite a few lives saved on both sides.