Although I have frequently criticized U.S. President Joe Biden’s treatment of Israel, I sincerely hope and pray that he will be successful in ending the current war with a victory for the Jewish state in Gaza and preventing an escalation of tensions in Lebanon.
Special envoy Amos Hochstein expressed confidence in Beirut on Tuesday that a diplomatic solution would be found to end the conflict.
“The conflict along the Blue Line between Israel and Hezbollah has gone on long enough,” Hochstein said. “Innocent people are dying. Property is being destroyed. Families are being torn apart and the Lebanese economy continues to decline. The country is suffering for no reason. It is in everyone's interest to resolve this quickly and diplomatically. It is achievable and it is urgent.”
But given the rabid anti-Semitism of Hamas, Hezbollah and their Iranian backers, and the Biden administration’s incompetence towards Israel, I am skeptical about the chances of success via diplomatic routes.
Any deal would be conditional on Hezbollah honoring its commitments under UN Resolution 1701 to completely disarm and withdraw from the south bank of the Litani River, a commitment that nobody believes Hezbollah will suddenly honor after 18 years. The resolution ended the Second Lebanon War and since then Hezbollah has more than 150,000 rockets and is the dominant force in the Lebanese government. Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Said Hassan Nasrallah speaks during a televised address on June 19, 2024. (Photo by REUTERS/MOHAMED AZAKIR)
This means that the only option left is a military approach.
Are you saying that you've tried that too?
Not really. Israel has fought the war hand-in-hand throughout, relying on the United States for military supplies while the Jewish state accepted one inappropriate demand after another from Washington.
The time has come for a more aggressive approach in both Gaza and Lebanon: Israel should immediately bomb deep into Lebanon and invade its northern neighbor.
There are three main reasons: too many Israelis have been displaced for too long, there is no way to win a war without crushing the enemy, and our efforts in Gaza have failed, producing lessons that must be learned quickly.
60,000 displaced people from northern communities left their homes on October 7 with the hope that they would be able to return within a few days. Months have passed now – eight and a half months to be exact – and their plight has been ignored by the Israeli authorities and the world.
Even educated American news viewers are unaware that more rockets have been fired at Israel from Lebanon than from Gaza in this war, and that 80 square kilometers (31 square miles) are ablaze.
And too many Israelis are unable to evacuate and live in fear in areas hit by Hezbollah rockets during this war. We have put our children's lives at risk, but it's time to stop.
I have supported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition, but there is no point in maintaining a government if it cannot fulfill its basic obligations to keep its residents and citizens safe.
The government owes it to the people of the North to fight in a more effective way. Wars cannot be won with clean approaches of defense or offense.
Second reason for invading Lebanon: We must fight to win.
Israel has boasted to the world about its relative success in minimizing enemy casualties in urban warfare — certainly compared to the United States. That success came at the unacceptable cost of the lives of young soldiers who were forbidden from firing their guns.
I am all for having rules, but when it comes to minimizing IDF casualties and saving the lives of boys and girls in the fight against evil, the rules are meant to be broken.
It's time for Israel to go all out and stop worrying about how the US will respond. Israel must set its own policy, and if it meets US bipartisan standards, great, but if not, so be it.
The IDF needs to abandon the notion that it must wage a Supreme Court-approved clean war, which may work for skirmishes and small-scale operations, but simply does not work in a serious multi-front war.
Of course, if we invade Lebanon, there will be many casualties on our side, but the IDF will take the necessary precautions to protect its soldiers, and the only way to win is to inflict heavy losses on the enemy. You need to destroy and kill. That's the purpose of war.
This is the final reason for escalating the war in Lebanon. We are losing the war in Gaza because we have been overly cautious. Too much effort is being made to provide humanitarian aid to the hostiles in Gaza, but instead of providing intelligence to help us find the hostages, they are taking them themselves.
This was another inappropriate request by the Biden administration, which is withholding a critical shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that could be used in an attack that could successfully end the war.
Prime Minister Netanyahu will appear before parliament next month and will no doubt declare victory in the war, by which time hopefully he will be justified in doing so.
It would be ridiculous to say so at this point: Eight months into the war, rockets fired from Gaza over Tel Aviv and as far north as Ra'anana (about 90 km) are not a sign of victory.
That's a sign of insanity.
For decades we've quoted Albert Einstein as saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” but it turns out he never said that.
The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, an authoritative compilation of his most memorable quotes, identified the quote as a misquote.
Here's what he said: “I thought about it for months, even years. 99 times I was wrong. The 100th time I was right.”
Israel is not an Einstein genius and cannot afford to get it wrong again. It is time to bomb and invade Lebanon and finally get it right.
The author is president of the Religious Zionist Union of America, president of the Center for Justice and Integrity, director of the Institute for the Culture of Peace, and serves on the board of the Jewish Agency. He was also appointed by former President Donald Trump to serve as a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. Opinions expressed here are the author's own. Martinoliner@gmail.com
