Why can’t we defeat our enemies any longer? To defeat them, enormous, lethal force needs to be applied. Such destructive power can only be used if we believe unequivocally in the righteousness of our cause. And today, we as a people do not.
This morning, three people waiting for buses at the entrance to Jerusalem were murdered. The killers came from east Jerusalem, got out of their car, shot up the place and then were killed by off-duty soldiers and a civilian with a gun. The place where they were murdered is called the “trampiyada,” as hitchhiking in Hebrew is called getting a “tramp.”
Israel has enough fire power—without any nukes—to get rid of Hamas in Gaza, terror threats from the West Bank (including east Jerusalem) and wipe Hezbollah off the face of the Earth. So why is she doing some kabuki theater with Hamas for hostages, letting Arabs from the West Bank enter Israel and firing tit for tat with Hezbollah? The short answer is that Israel does not fully believe in itself.
During World War II, allies killed over 500,000 Germans and another 675,000 Japanese civilians through aerial bombing raids. While the Japanese directly attacked the US at Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war without any direct attack (initially) on the US or its forces. Still, the US and its allies killed well over a million Axis citizens through bombing raids which were far less precise than they are today. So why did the governments allow themselves to kill so many non-combatants? The short answer is that the Allies believed in their cause and knew that they needed to bomb enemy cities in order to secure a total victory.
The Allied leadership and citizens understood that if Hitler and Tojo won, the world would be a much different place than the one to which they were accustomed. A wise 101st Airborne fighter who landed at Normandy was once asked after his return why he fought. He answered, “So that you would not have to learn German.” Freedom was on the line; a German victory meant that all of Europe would live under Gestapo and SS control. Because the possibility was so horrific, the Americans, British, and their partners fought like everything was at stake—because it was.
The same was true in the Pacific. The Japanese were barbaric; wherever they conquered, the local population was terrorized and thrown into brutal slavery. The Japanese needed to be beaten—utterly. One of my favorite posters from the period is from the summer of 1945: Uncle Sam rolls up his sleeves and makes clear that after the German defeat, the Japanese were next. That was the confidence that was needed. And victory was secured, with 80 years of peace with these two countries following those decisive victories.
If you had spoken to any American or Brit at the time, he or she would have described the enemy as evil. There was enough evidence from German behavior before the war as well as stories of Japanese behavior at Nanking and elsewhere to fully support this view. Religious people are far more likely to see both good and evil in the world, as religious texts tend to define the two clearly. As our society becomes more secular, people move more towards moral relativism. Look at the thousands on campus and in the major Western capitals marching in favor of Hamas—even after the terrorists themselves provided video evidence of barbarism that defies description. Moral relativism has taken the place of black and white, good and evil. And if the other side is not so evil, then the good guys will not receive a national mandate to fight to win. In the current conflict, the UN and the countries of the world will tsk tsk Israel and not support her fight to uproot a psychotic enemy whose Koranic view of "good and evil" is clear enough to them. As of today, Israelis cannot live in the north or south of the country and are currently in hotels here in Jerusalem and elsewhere. The West is more worried about the Palestinian civilians who support Hamas’ actions than the well-being of Jewish residents of Israel. Just like the women's groups who show no interest in raped, murdered, and captured Israeli women.
The same loss of national confidence is to be found, if to a lesser extent, here in Israel. Israel could pulverize all of its enemies, but it has lost faith in its founding dream. David Ben Gurion commented after the lightning victory in 1967 that the Arabs no longer run away. Well, if they do not run away, then you have to transfer them to another place if you want a Jewish state. But if you do not believe in the Zionist ideal or the religious promises in the Torah, then why move them? Zionism was predicated not only on the Land of Israel being the ancestral home of the Jewish people (they had considered Uganda and other points). It was also created due to the many, many pogroms and attacks against Jewish communities throughout Europe and the world. If we only had our own land, we could protect ourselves. One might think of the approximately 25,000 soldiers and civilians killed in wars and attacks over 100 years and say, statistically we’re doing okay. But when 1,200 are killed in eight hours, then one has to ask if Zionism has lived up to its promise. Are Jews safer in their own state?
As long as the West does not believe in its values, in the good of its ways, in the truth given by G-d, then it cannot win. Stalemates and losses in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and for Israel with Gaza, the West Bank, south Lebanon and Iran are symptoms of people who have the firepower but do not have the will to use it. In the past, any country that saw its women raped and murdered, its soldiers and toddlers beheaded, and its people dragged off to captivity would have spared no round, no bullet and no weapon to destroy its enemy. But Israel does not believe in its founding principles of providing safety to the Jewish people and thus hesitates to attack where there are Gazan civilians or simply flood the tunnels and probably bring down half of the buildings in Gaza. While people here are very sympathetic to the plight of the hostages and their families, they want the IDF to go back in and wipe Hamas off the face of the Earth. Does Israel have the inner fortitude to do it? Does the West have the belief in life, liberty, and happiness to beat the Chinese? Not if pronouns and military drag queen story hours are more important than artillery rounds or ships not running into each other.
Victory over enemies demands that a country believe in the righteousness of its cause. Not for nothing did Roosevelt state, “No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.” But if citizens and by extension governments do not believe in the founding principles of yore, then they will not have the will to defeat an enemy. A war like Afghanistan that drags on for 20 years is in many ways far more brutal than a highly kinetic war that is over in months. But we’d rather fight carefully than fight to win. Winning demands an all-out, no holds barred effort. And today, we don’t have the will to make such an effort.