We should want Israel to win
The First Arab-Israeli War: What Has Israel Learned? Does Hamas Really Need Israel? Why Does Israel Have a Right to Wish?
We should sympathize with the plight of the Palestinians in the West Bank and also be aware of the restrictions on freedom of movement, but I don’t think there’s any excuse for what Hamas did on October 7. If you believe, as I do, that the only solution is two states for two indigenous peoples between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the Hamas rampage set that back immeasurably.
On the first anniversary of the war between Hamas and Hezbollah, what am I thinking about? All wars come down to two basic questions: who wins the battle on the ground or in the air? said my strategy teacher. And who wins the battle 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 had better hope that Israel wins its wars against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and their masters in Tehran. By winning, I mean that Israel takes away enemies’ ability to wage war and that they accept that their interests are no longer served by fighting.
Hezbollah is hated by most of the people in Lebanon. But they will never be free of its tyranny if there is nobody 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?
