Israel has always been forced to be too kind to its enemies

[Pelican Press 0]

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******* has always been forced to be too kind to its enemies

A truism has it that ******* needs to lose only one war for its modern history to come to an early close. That has never been more obvious than today, with the IDF locked in combat with ****** in the south,

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and the Ayatollah within touching distance of a nuclear *****. If ******* ***** down its arms there would be a second Holocaust, but if the ****** did so there would be peace. Another truism, also so called for a reason.

But in its recent conflicts, ******* has been held to a draw. Regardless of the numbers of civilians *******, it seems that while the West is happy to win wars for itself, whether against ***** Germany, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq or the Islamic State, different rules apply to the Jews.

Take the last three land conflicts in Gaza – Protective Edge of 2014, Pillar of Defence of 2012, and 2008’s Cast Lead – which followed *******’s 2005 withdrawal from the Strip. ******* had thought leaving Gaza would bring peace. But all three were sparked by ****** provocations, including abductions, bombings and rocket *****.

Lasting between a week and a month, these conflicts left ****** degraded but undeterred. Each time, they deployed the same *********** playbook, flooding the world with pictures of civilian suffering while censoring evidence of ***** terrorists. (In 2014, Indian journalists captured rare footage of militants launching rockets beside their hotel. ****** was furious. It never happened again.) Each time, the media lapped it up. Each time, the international community obliged Gaza’s Islamist overlords by demanding that ******* remove its boot from their throats.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s “concept” evolved during this *******. Under that doctrine, Jerusalem would rely on its military superiority to contain ******, punishing it when provoked but avoiding a ****** to the ******. The logic seemed sound: ******* doubled the size of its economy during those years, while its military, technological and diplomatic achievements soared. The hope was that ****** would shrivel and its sponsor, Iran, would collapse under the weight of its own oppression.

That looks painfully naive today. If October 7 provided one lesson, it was this: a neighbouring ****** who wishes to ******** you, and makes no secret of that fact and builds the capability to do so, will sooner or later break through. That is the principal reason why Netanyahu is holding out against a ******** deal that would leave ****** undefeated. This time it has to be different.

But as evidenced by the

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, it is not just international pressure that forces the ******* state to compromise its own security needs. ******* is a democracy and sometimes the pressure comes from within.

In 1982, the war with Hezbollah ended inconclusively. The IDF withdrew to a buffer zone along the ******** frontier, remaining there to prevent Hezbollah from returning. In 1997, two ******** military helicopters collided while servicing the zone, claiming 73 lives.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the “four mothers” movement, led by parents of serving soldiers, became instrumental in stoking public resentment. This pressured ******* into pulling out of southern Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah then crept back to the border, triggering a further war in 2006.

That round of hostilities ended with a full ******** withdrawal, aligned with ******* Nations Resolution 1701, which demanded that Hezbollah be disarmed and kept north of the Litani river, some 19 miles from *******. Hezbollah simply ignored this; consequences came there none. As I write, it is pounding ******* once again with rockets.

******* is a country deep in anguish. Thirsty for peace and fatigued by war, the crowds on the streets blame the deaths of the hostages on a venal Netanyahu. But the curse of the Jews is that suffering ***** along every path. That will not change unless the jihadi ****** is defeated.

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#******* #forced #kind #enemies

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