The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

Last week I wrote about my reservations in regard to the seemingly slow and muted pace of the Israeli response to Hamas and its vile subhuman brutality. I questioned whether Israel was responding in its traditional way...surgical strikes, carefully moderated military action...all designed to minimize world opprobrium.

I was challenged by some commenters, who pointed out that military action without careful planning, intelligence and battle space prep is a recipe for disaster. While I understand that unassailable point, I was fearful that the resolve and cold anger of the Israeli people would be dissipated by political expediency and the rapidly building pressure from all quarters to moderate the entirely justifiable response to the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

I seem to be wrong, and I cannot imagine a better topic about which my opinion was incorrect!

On Israeli TV...Israel's Defense Minister send message to to Hamas: "Die or surrender."

Updates at https://t.co/pz06TOfUyt pic.twitter.com/FHbz9mzdvW

— Salem News Channel (@WatchSalemNews) October 30, 2023

The Israeli armed forces have gone into Gaza in force, and are carefully grinding down the resistance. They are also aggressively responding to attacks in the north...from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran's other proxies in Syria.

"Die or surrender."

That's sort of catchy...I like it.

The challenge in Israel is for the competing factions in the government to focus on the obvious and existential issue of Hamas. It must be destroyed, and internal strife has to be deferred until the borders of Israel are safe. That may take many weeks or months, and Gaza is not the only issue. Hezbollah and Iran are similarly evil, and their stated goals are identical to that of Hamas...the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state.

The fragile support for Israel's efforts will further erode as Israel destroys more of Hamas' infrastructure and "fighters." And when Israel destroys its headquarters, conveniently located under the biggest hospital in Gaza, the world will gasp in horror, cry crocodile tears, and carefully ignore the herculean efforts by Israel to minimize civilian casualties. But war is brutal, and civilians often bear the brunt of the destruction. That Hamas uses the people of Gaza as human shields should shock the conscience of the civilized world, but the rules are different when Jews are killed, so Hamas (and Islam) will get a pass.

The cognitive dissonance of American support for the Iranian regime and its proxy in Lebanon is similarly disturbing, but until we have a coherent policy of containment of Iranian expansionism and funding of terrorism, rather than a frankly insane policy of support of the preeminent terror network in the world, Israel and the West will continue to suffer.

posted by CBD at 11:00 AM

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