The obvious reasons why killing the leaders
of Hamas and Hezbollah is a good thing.
Courtesy of Doug Ross.

The confirmation today that Israel had finally killed Hamas leader Yahha Sinwar, considered the main architect behind the October 7, 2023 murder, rape, and torture of more than a thousand Israeli men, women, children, and babies near Gaza is good news, but it only is one small victory in what is now clearly Israel’s decision to go for nothing more than total victory against the terrorists who have been hounding and killiing its citizens wantonly for decades.

You see, since the 1973 Yom Kippur war, all of Israel’s responses against terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah have been limited and targeted, and ended quickly with fake ceasefires that allowed those terrorist groups to not only regroup, but actually expand their capabilities.

The most blatent and best example of this what happened in connection with Israel’s 2006 month-long invasion of Lebanon, launched in an attempt to defeat Hezbollah. The invasion bogged down, and as a result Israel and Hezbollah ended up agreeing to UN resolution 1701, which had Israel evaculate southern Lebanon and the UN take on the task of keeping the peace. The agreement also created a demilitarized zone in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah was forbidden.

That agreement was an utter failure. Neither the UN nor Lebanon had the ability or even the desire to limit Hezbollah, and so before long it had made that demilitarized zone a launchpad for rocket attacks into Israel. In Israel’s most recent campaign to clear out that zone, it has also discovered tunnels and large weapons caches clearly designed for Hezbollah’s own planned October 7th-type invasion.

After October 7th, what I labeled Israel’s Pearl Harbor, Israel was clearly no longer going to accept this failed piecemeal and limited negotiating approach, administered by dishonest third parties like the UN and even the United States. Instead, it decided to go by an old American concept of “unconditional surrender,” first made plain by Grant during the Civil War and then underlined by Eisenhower and Roosevelt in their insistence on “total victory” in World War II.

In other words, Israel would only accept a ceasefire or peace treaty if it involved the surrender and capture of the leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah. If they refused to do this, then Israel resolved to kill them.

It has now demonstrated its ability to do so, with gratifying success.

Israel’s military actions since October 7th however also illustrate a major change in strategy and tactics. In Israel’s 2006 Lebonan invasion, the focus was in gaining control of territory. In today’s war, Israel has instead focused on killing the leadership of its enemies. In a sense, it has adopted Grant’s strategy in the final year of the Civil War: Find and defeat Lee’s army, and the war will end.

We can now see that Israel has been quite successful in achieving this goal. With few exceptions, the entire leadership of both Hamas and Hezbollah have been wiped out.

A lot of pearl-clutchers in the west continually fear that this unwavering offensive by Israel will instigate a rise in tensions in the Middle East. Politicians like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and Macron in France repeatedly demand Israel stop, because somehow they think Israel’s actions will trigger a greater and more widespread conflict.

I predict that exactly the opposite will occur, at least for a decade plus, as long as Israel does not go timid and stop its offensive. The terrorist leadership and the infrastructure built to wage war in the past two decades is now largely gone. It cannot be replaced easily. In a short while it will be completely gone, as Israel completes final clean-up operations in both Gaza and southern Lebanon.

The result will be the end of rocket attacks into Israel, and a significant reduction in organized terrorist mass attacks. We shall also see an opportunity in both Gaza and Lebanon to rebuild, with achievement the goal rather than killing Jews. In both places Israel is going to maintain control and a presence of some kind, and will not allow corrupt UN officials the ability to help these terrorists, as it has clearly been doing for decades. We can see this with Netanyahu’s recent push to have Israel’s army take control of the administration of aid to the Gaza strip.

Israel now recognizes this basic fact: You can’t
negotiate with someone who wants to kill you

Furthermore, Israel’s aggressive and successful elimination of these madmen is going to do a lot to improve its relations with other Arab nations, excluding Iran. Arab culture admires the strong man who acts correctly for his own interests. Israel has not only done this, it has also shown it isn’t interested in conquering its neighbors, only eliminating the evil-doers who have made life hellish for both Israel and the Arabs who live in those countries. For nations like Jordan, Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, Israel has done them a great favor getting rid of these thugs. And we know these countries believe this because of their many covert and overt treaty deals with Israel in recent years.

So, the best thing that can happen in the next few months is that Israel continues its aggressive campaign, ignoring the nay-sayers in the west. I suspect it will do so. I also suspect a Trump victory will act to accelerate that campaign, not defuse it.