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Israel is fighting a critical war in Gaza. Learning from the past is essential to know what to do and what has not worked in previous conflicts.
The key to success in any war is the people and the fighting forces being on the same page. One of the greatest tragedies of Vietnam was that while US forces fought bravely against a difficult enemy in challenging conditions, much of the US population started to turn against the war, the president, and those fighting, going so far as to call them “baby killers”. Such a situation cannot last long, as the soldiers need to know that the people who sent them have their back.
To his great credit, Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu has consistently supported Israeli war efforts when he was in the opposition. During previous conflicts, Netanyahu gave numerous interviews to English-language outlets and always supported whatever policies the government at the time followed. He never second-guessed or said, “If I was prime minister….” The same cannot be said right now of Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, and Yair Lapid, the latter demanding that Bibi resign and be replaced by someone in the Likud. This is not the time for politics, though politics never sleeps in Israel. For the soldiers to win, the people from wall to wall must be behind them without wavering or criticizing the government’s policies. The time for that will come after the shooting stops. Former prime minister Naftali Bennet has consistently fought with CNN and the like on Israel’s behalf in this conflict and never second-guessed the current government.
With the above in mind, I do not want to criticize the Israeli government thrown into a war after the barbaric Hamas attack. As I wrote previously, every day brings new and more gruesome revelations. Women raped, murdered and stacked up in a shed in Kibuttz Be’eri—that one dropped this week, while a young woman told of her hiding in some bushes at the rave and watching people—including friends—begging for their lives only to be murdered in cold blood. She said that the terrorists continued shooting into the bodies of the dead young men and women, causing their bodies to bounce off of the ground. There are not enough adjectives in the English language to describe the depravity of Hamas and the Gazan citizens who murdered, raped, tortured, and stole. If New Jersey is called the armpit of America, then Gaza is the concentrated garbage dump of the world.
Below is a list of actions tried by Israel, the US, and other Western powers that failed. One would hope that the current leadership of Israel would learn from these failures and that the West would take the pressure off of Israel so as not to force her to make the same mistakes over and over again.
1. Trying to reduce civilian casualties. To date, Israel has lost in combat over 50 soldiers, beyond the 300 murdered on 10/7. I cannot tell you if one or 40 have died because Israel risks the lives of its soldiers to reduce civilian casualties. There is no question that Israel could not conduct the entire campaign from the air. There comes a time when one needs boots on the ground to root out bad guys, take care of tunnels, or collect weapons, computers, and intelligence. The problem with everyone from the UN to the White House and college campuses bleating about civilian deaths (how many of those dead in Gaza are terrorists—Hamas does not say) is that Israel will put soldiers in harm’s way to try to reduce civilians killed. The first thing a soldier must know is that his life is more important to his officers and the politicians who sent him than the lives of the enemy. The allies in Afghanistan and Iraq lost numerous soldiers by placing them on urban battlefields to reduce non-combatant casualties. This is a mistake. While Israel suffers from the gullible world accepting as accurate any number the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza throws out, Israel’s priority must be the safety of its fighting men and women (and yes, women are fighting on the ground in Gaza). The lives of your soldiers are more critical than enemy civilians. If you don’t understand that, get out of the war-making business.
2. Exchange of prisoners. Releasing terrorists has cost both Israel and the US dearly. The terrorists released from Guantanamo Bay for the deserter Bowe Bergdahl went back to their business and caused the death of American soldiers. The same has been confirmed for Israel’s large-scale terrorist releases. Those sent to Lebanon in the “Rajoub” deal included the nucleus for the Second Intifada, where over a thousand Israelis were murdered during six years of terror. The 1000-for-one Schalit deal led to the release of many of those who planned and carried out the 10/7 massacre, including the chief planner of the attack, Yaha Sinwar. Releasing prisoners has always led to future terror attacks. And why has Israel always let the Palestinians dictate the terms of release—how many terrorists for how many Jews? Hamas demanded 1,000 terrorists for the soldier Schalit. Israel never questioned the proposition.
3. Nation building. Active and costly nation-building efforts in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan yielded no long-term successes. There is no question that when the US or coalition forces were present, some percentage of the population was ready to buy into a Western-oriented modernization program. But the Western powers always leave, and the locals are offered death or coming back into the fold. Nowhere was this more obvious than with the collapse of the Afghan army. They looked around and realized that, like the Taliban, they pray five times a day, eat Halal food, don’t want women going to school, etc., and with the Americans in full retreat, they switched sides or stopped fighting. Palestinians hate the Jews. Period. Providing them with food, fuel, and medicine has not weakened their hatred in the past. They will take that which you give them and then try to kill you immediately afterward. There are no hearts or minds in Gaza; if there were, they would not be changed by letting in humanitarian aid. Maybe letting in the trucks takes a little foreign pressure off and may stave off disease, but it doesn’t do good for ingrates who hate you. Remember the regular Gazans dancing in the street and spitting on Jewish bodies on the morning of 10/7?
4. Ceasefires. Hadar Goldin was murdered during a previous ceasefire in Gaza. He and a compatriot entered a tunnel and were murdered by Hamas terrorists. The explanation was that John Kerry, yes, that John Kerry, with lots of hair and no brain neurons, had not told Hamas about the ceasefire, so the terrorists saw Jews and killed them and have been holding Goldin’s body as a bargaining chip for years. Hamas will break the ceasefire and try to kill Jews. I would be shocked if this agreement made it to its fourth day. I expect that early in the ceasefire, Hamas will attack Israeli soldiers, and the whole deal will be off with only a small number of captives released. Remember, there was a ceasefire at 6:30 in the morning on 10/7, which Hamas shredded with thousands of rockets and thousands of terrorists crossing into Israel.
Israel needs to win this war, and the West should realize that victory will help weaken the Islamist push to take over the world. Israel needs to fight aggressively and mercilessly and avoid the mistakes of the past that have cost so dearly in lives lost. The US should not pressure Israel to make those mistakes again.
These four points needed to be said. It should be obvious that your fighters are your priority, not the welfare of the enemy’s civilians. Releasing the enemy’s fighters not only brings future attacks but makes kidnapping more likely,
The folly of nations-building, especially in Muslim nations, should be obvious. I’d add that Arab live in dictatorships & kingdoms because self-determination is not an Arab thing–they need to be ruled.
Ceasefire is antithetical to victory. Only those who are losing ask for ceasefires.
Not to mention that EVERY member of Hamas is a civilian and EVERY Paleosimian wants every Jew on Earth dead.
I am Australian, and I have never been able to work out why the USA seem to think they control the world. Thy constantly tell nations what they should be doing, when its none of their business. And having seen the disastrous outcomes that many USA political decisions have caused – Afghanistan, Vietnam, Cuba come to mind – Its a wonder that anyone takes any notice of their edicts.
You may not understand the difference between good and evil. The Communist dictatorship led by Castro was evil, you should learn about the Cuban people losing their freedom and the hundreds imprisoned or murdered by the regime. Thus the United States opposed Castro. As for Vietnam, we had a peaceful independent country of South Vietnam, who asked for help from the illegal invasion of the Viet Cong communists, who sought to again, take away the freedom of the South Vietnamese people. Thus the United States decided to help South Vietnam. It was obvious that every communist regime on earth mistreated their citizens, destroyed the economy, subjugated the citizens to a violent police state of oppression. I hope the good people of Australia can vote out and remove the brutal dictatorship that forced the poisonous covid clot shots and inhumane lockdowns on that good country,
You’re conflating America with its government, and the UN, EU, World Economic Forum and many other organizations are FAR more meddlesome than even the Dirtbagocrats. Trump fostered the Abraham Accords, you know. He didn’t try to dictate to any other country other than well directed warnings to Russia and North Korea.
I like Australia and I’ll give your government credit, members have condemned Hamas and PM Albanese called for the pro-Paleosimian March to be canceled – but if he doesn’t force its cancellation, his condemnation is meaningless. And your government favors the two state non-solution, which would make an already terrible situation FAR worse, just like many stupid A-holes here in America’s government do.
And oh, yeah. How do you think China would treat Australia if America didn’t exist?
America is the world’s premiere power but we don’t control it and sure don’t want to dominate it, not even the Dirtbagocrat party, which sacrifices American interests to China and every other foreign country imaginable, including fake governments like the Gaza Strip, which our government funds with billions of dollars, most of which goes to Hamas and all of which goes to genocidal sub-humans.. We seem to fund most of the world though, against the desire of the vast majority our citizens.
After two thousand years of brutal antisemitism culminating in the Shoah, Israel was reestablished and miraculously survived and even thrived despite the Arabs with their oil. Unfortunately, it took another Shoah on Oct 7, 2023, to unite the Israelis on the right and left to destroy the Arab terrorists in Gaza.
Prior to Hussein Obama, the US was concerned about the flow of oil and could not care less about the spilling of Jewish blood, unless Israel’s response to the spilling of Jewish blood interfered with the flow of that oil.
Since Hussein Obama, the US is less concerned about the flow of oil and more concerned about causing the spilling of Jewish blood. Every day Israel survives is a defeat against Hussein Obama’s “fundamental (fascist) transformation”.
There are 4 evil dictators that facilitated the Oct 7 massacre of Jews. Putin’s Russia reportedly supplied the technology that allowed the thousands of Arab terrorists from Gaza to overrun Israel’s security fence. Xi’s China supports Iran and imports 90% of Iran’s oil exports. These two dictators may believe that a weakened or destroyed Israel may intimidate Ukraine and Taiwan in their respective struggles with Russia and China. Iran’s Khamenei is busy destroying his own country, has the support of Putin and Xi, but needs the support of the fourth dictator to destroy Israel.
IMHO, the fourth dictator is Hussein Obama. Hussein Obama is still running the White House with his corrupt puppet named Joe installed in the White House after stealing the US presidential election in 2020.
May Israel stay strong and get stronger. For as told in the Haggadah, every generation a group arises that wants to destroy the Jews.
Am Yisrael Chai, despite 4000 years of brutal, anti-Semitism and Democrats.
Good points except the oft told fable that Bareback Hasbeen Obama runs the Alzheimer Joe administration. That incompetent loafer couldn’t run a shit dribble down the crack of his ass.
Excellent article.. I wish the Israeli leadership would read this. I suspect, though, that pressure from Biden’s handlers, inimical to Israel’s interests, are threatening to withhold needed weaponry if Israel doesn’t go easier on Hamas. The world is indeed an evil place.
Your suspicion is well founded. Of course that’s what Alzheimer Joe’s evil handlers are doing. The eqivicating scripts he bungles through are proof positive.
Vietnam was the beginning of the leftist notion that our patriot-soldiers should be sent to war, while the weaklings in charge created rules of engagement designed preclude victory. Now the weakling Biden regime seeks to impose our losing formula on Israel. The only path to peace is killing Hamas butchers and their supporters, and doing so as quickly as possible.
And ignoring everything that comes from Alzheimer Joe’s despicable handlers.
Hamass must and will be eliminated.
The only acceptable outcome is if all hamass members and supporters are dead or surrender unconditionally.
That’s the ONLY language the savages understand.
Forget about any kind of reasoning, logic or “humanity.”
Rabid animals should be put down or caged.
They’re already caged but they got out on 10/7 and fire rockets at will. Your first recommendation is the only recommendation.
Israel is already making the same old deadly mistakes because the left wing of Jewry is psychologically stunted–not to mention bought and paid for by foreign leftists.
islam is a terrorist group not a religion , nobody in the west seems to understand that . if they do they are condoning it . but just like robespierre they will eventually come for its adherents and defendants . unfortunately jews like kissinger and blinky blinken are israels clandestine worst enemies . while they lounge in their comfortable homes in america their countrymen are the gun fodder for their failed policies and the fiction of a two state solution with fakestinians . the arabs don’t want jews in the middle east and neither do the west want them in their countries either . jews have no friends only lip service from low life miscreants commonly known as elected officials and in the case of feckless joe , fraudulently .