There’s an old Hebrew saying that applies to Israel’s policies and actions toward Gaza and Iran:
“It’s better to be wise than right.”
Israel is right to send troops back into Gaza to root out Hamas terrorists. It is right to bomb terrorist hideouts and tunnels. Israel is right to reject world condemnation of its military actions in Gaza. Israel is even right to limit or deny humanitarian assistance to Gaza, knowing that most of it ends up in Hamas' hands.
Right, but not wise. The wise response requires looking beyond Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made Israel’s case in statements and a news conference in recent days. His strident defense of his government’s actions included some inaccuracies and a few misinterpretations—but the real problem was his insistence that since Israel can justify its military actions, therefore it must carry them out.
He noted that Israel has killed dozens of Hamas terrorists, including its top Gaza leader, in recent airstrikes. He warned that if Israel were to stop its offensive now, all the gains of the last year and a half would be lost.
Responding to threats from France, Britain, and Canada to impose sanctions if Israel continues its military operations, Netanyahu charged that the leaders of those nations have taken the side of Hamas.
All that is arguably correct. It’s still not wise.
This is the place to say again that all the destruction and suffering that followed the Hamas pogrom of October 7, 2023, is the fault of Hamas. Israel is responsible for allowing Hamas to arm itself, and for the Israeli response to the Hamas atrocities, but the overall blame falls on Hamas and its Iranian sponsors.
Also, nothing here negates the right and necessity for Israel and its supporters to combat antisemitism and the well-oiled propaganda machine spreading lies about Israel and Jews around the world.
In Gaza, Netanyahu has restricted his approach to his own limited definition of victory—defeating Hamas, removing it from power, assuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, and release of all the hostages Hamas is holding.
Ever defiant and combative, he insisted that, if necessary, Israel must stand alone against the terrorists and against the rest of the world. He even applied that axiom to Iran, declaring that Israel would act on its own to stop Iran’s nuclear program—though Iran is clearly a threat to the Arab world and the West, not just Israel.
That’s the most unwise of all. Netanyahu meets international condemnations with macho muscle-flexing. The wise response would be to accept that without allies, Israel cannot win this war, or, for that matter, any war.
Israel’s military mission in Gaza succeeded months ago, eliminating Hamas as an effective fighting force. Netanyahu disparaged the thousands of Hamas terrorists who stormed across the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, and killed more than 1,200 Israelis, describing them as ragtag forces wearing flip-flops.
In fact, Hamas had created a full-fledged fighting force with a command structure, weapons, training, and communications, all under Netanyahu’s nose. That force is gone. What’s left are individual terrorists hiding in tunnels, trying to pick off the occasional Israeli soldier or fire the occasional rocket at Israel.
Israel can send soldiers into all parts of Gaza and reoccupy the territory, but it won’t be able to eliminate Hamas completely. Not only is “total victory” incompatible with achieving the release of the remaining 58 hostages held by Hamas, but “total victory” is unattainable regardless.
Worse, whether Israel likes it or not, the world is focused on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Every day there are new pictures of starving Palestinians and dead babies. Even if the pictures are fake, and some of them are, even if civilians inevitably die in conflicts like this, Israel cannot ignore the feelings of the whole world in order to carry out a dubious mission in Gaza, like flattening the territory and allowing Israeli settlers back in.
Looking at the larger picture
Israel should be looking at the larger picture. Though a case can be made that France, Britain, and Canada are wrong to criticize Israel’s operations, it’s clearly more important that Israel keep its allies on its side than kill a few more terrorists or knock down a few more buildings in Gaza.
Here’s why: If there is ever to be a solution to the Gaza situation, it will have to come in a regional framework, involving moderate Arab nations and perhaps even NATO. Israel can’t do it alone.
Instead of working toward such a future, Israel is pushing its allies in the West and the Arab world away. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the outstanding Middle East achievement of the past decade—the Abraham Accords, in which several Arab nations made peace with Israel—could be swept away in the flood of criticism of Israel, even if much of that criticism is unjustified.
Israel’s alternative is to stop the war, declare victory by pointing to the severe reduction in Hamas power, press for release of the hostages, cooperate with the rest of the world in rebuilding and governing Gaza, and prepare for the next round of fighting if all that doesn’t work.
That would be both right and wise, because to quote another Hebrew saying, fighting terrorism is never “one shot and we’re done.”
Mark Lavie has been covering the Middle East for major news outlets since 1972. His second book, Why Are We Still Afraid?, which follows his five-decade career and comes to a surprising conclusion, is available on Amazon.