Israel is doing the dirty work of fighting evil for us all.
With the dramatic assassination of Hamas political chieftain Ismail Haniyeh while a “guest” of Ayatollah Khamenei in Tehran; preceded by the assassination 12 hours earlier of Hezbollah kingpin Faud Shakr in Beirut; the confirmation of the death of Hamas military strategist Muhammad Deif from Khan Younis; the death of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Amir Hajizadeh near Damascus; and the attack on the Houthi stronghold at the port of Hodeida, Yemen, the world has learned that there are no limits to the long arm of Israeli intelligence.
This is Israel stepping up to the plate and doing the job of protecting itself, the United States and all of the West from the Iranian octopus and its radical Islamist tentacles.
Yet according to Axios, President Joe Biden demanded in a “tough call” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that Israel “stop escalating tensions” and move immediately toward a hostage and ceasefire deal.
The United States has followed a baffling policy toward the Middle East that has failed miserably time after time. As far back as the Oslo Accords, U.S. policy has been to project our own good nature onto the rest of the world, no matter how evil it might be. On Sept. 13, 1993, the U.S. led the charge to whitewash Yasser Arafat’s decades of terrorism and make him into a “statesman” and Nobel Prize laureate.
The second intifada that began in September 2000, with its intensive suicide bombings that killed over 1,000 Israeli and other civilians, did little to deter those whose mind was trapped in the failed paradigm of the “two-state solution.” All the while, incitement against Israelis, Jews, Americans and Christians was broadcast throughout Palestinian media, from mosques and textbooks, infusing most Palestinians and many Arabs with unadulterated hatred.
Those of us who tried to expose all this were the objects of scornful ridicule from the “chattering classes.” In what universe is the killing of innocents considered acceptable? Was it acceptable to us on 9/11?
The current efforts of the U.S. State Department toward Gaza and Iran are the shameful heirs of this Oslo legacy. Diplomacy toward containment is always the goal, irrespective of how evil our interlocutors might be.
We might do well to ask: Did we negotiate with Hitler or Emperor Hirohito during World War II? Between Feb. 13-15, 1945, U.S. and British bombers attacked Dresden, resulting in 25,000 deaths in two days. On the night between March 9-10, 1945, the U.S. attacked Tokyo, resulting in over 100,000 deaths.
We understood then what the true face of evil was. What has happened to us?
Part of the answer to that question lies in our failed wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. We in the United States always learn from our last war and project our sorry experiences onto the state of Israel.
But all wars are not alike. Israel does not have the two liquid assets, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, to surround and protect them. After the barbaric Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, the Israelis understand that they are facing an existential conflict. On Oct. 8, Hezbollah joined the fray in a war of attrition that has left approximately 80,000 Israelis homeless and thousands of acres of scorched earth from the thousands of Iranian-supplied missiles that Hezbollah has employed.
Yes, there are over 100,000 of these missiles. They might swarm and overwhelm Israel’s air defenses, some of which might have been depleted over the 10-month war with Hamas. Some are precision guided munitions that can reach valuable parts of Israel’s infrastructure, such as Dimona, the Kiryah (Israel’s Pentagon), the coastal plain where most Israelis live, and the electric grid.
Yet Biden wants to constrain Israel.
Examine, for example, the White House’s attitude toward Gaza. According to Biden, there should be a “Phased Plan” of three stages: 1) The IDF withdraws entirely from Gaza while Hamas releases an unspecified number of hostages who are old or infirm. In exchange, hundreds of Hamas terrorists will be released by Israel. Palestinian civilians will return to Gaza even though, since Hamas terrorists do not wear uniforms, it is all but impossible to distinguish them from civilians. 2) A permanent end to hostilities, with “the ceasefire staying as long as the negotiations will continue.” In other words, Hamas can regroup during this time or eternally if there is no end to the negotiations. 3) The reconstruction of Gaza overseen by Qatar (the main funder of Hamas), Egypt (whose tunnels were the main supply routes for Hamas’s weapons) and possibly a “revitalized Palestinian Authority.”
Just what Palestinian Authority are we talking about? According to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), “The percentage of satisfaction of Palestinians with Hamas and [its leader] Yahya Sinwar remains very high. By contrast,
satisfaction with Fatah and President [Mahmoud] Abbas continues to decline.” What is even more disconcerting is that, according to the PCPSR, two-thirds of the Palestinian public support the atrocities of Oct. 7.
Hezbollah was responsible not only for the dastardly attack on the Druze town of Majd al-Shams, which killed 12 young people, but for scores of car and bus bombings, the attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992, the 1994 AMIA bombing in the same city, the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Harari in 2005 and the1983 murder of 241 U.S. servicemen asleep in their barracks.
These are just some of the many faces of evil incarnate, all leading to Tehran. Khamenei has said that as a result of Haniyeh’s assassination “Iran has a duty to seek revenge for his blood,” adding that “Israel has prepared a harsh punishment for itself.”
The face of evil is staring at us and spitting in our eyes while our White House says, “It’s raining. Let’s step inside for a little diplomacy.”
Containment of evil is not a strategy. Excoriating those who fight evil should not be our policy.
As I write these words, Israelis are stocking their shelters with bottled water and cans. The world owes them a huge debt of gratitude. They are doing the dirty work for us all.
Sarah N. Stern is the founder and president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), a think tank that specializes in the Middle East. She is the author of “Saudi Arabia and the Global Terrorist Network” (2011).
