The First Arab-Israeli War Between Israel and Hamas: What Do We Really Think About Its Ends and When Does Israel Wanna Win?
We can and should sympathize with Palestinian statelessness and Arabs in the West Bank living under the duress of Israeli settlements and restrictions, but to my mind, there is nothing that can justify what Hamas attackers did on Oct. 7 — murdering, maiming, kidnapping and sexually abusing any Israeli they could get their hands on, without any goal, any story, other than to destroy the Jewish state. The Hamas bloodshed made me rethink my opinion of the solution, which was two states for two indigenous peoples between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
What do I think about this first anniversary of the war between Hamas and Hezbollah? Something my strategy teacher, Prof. John Arquilla of the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, taught me: All wars come down to two basic questions: Who wins the battle on the ground? Who wins the fight of the story? And what I am thinking about today is how, even after a year of warfare, in which Hamas and Hezbollah and Israel have inflicted terrible pain on one another’s forces and civilians, no one has decisively won the battle on the ground or the battle for the story. Indeed, one year after Oct. 7, this is still the first Arab-Israeli war without a name and without a clear victor — because neither side has a clear win or a clean story.
And what story is Iran telling? That it has some right under the U.N. Charter to help create failed states in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq so it can cultivate proxies inside them for the purpose of destroying Israel? And by what right has Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into a war with Israel that the Lebanese people and government had no say in and are now paying a huge price for?
The world should be hopeful that Israel will win its wars against Hamas, Hezbollah and their masters in Tehran. By “wins,” I mean that Israel inflicts such costs on its enemies’ capacity to wage war that they accept that their interests, irrespective of their desires, are no longer served by fighting.
Hezbollah is hated by most of the population. They will never be free of tyranny if there is no one to destroy its ability to violently dominate the political landscape. If a world that claims to care for Lebanon’s interests doesn’t want Israel to do it, perhaps someone else should volunteer. How about the French?