Israel Must Be Allowed to Win

Writing in the Washington Free Beacon Matthew Continetti lays out the case for ignoring, and denouncing, the many calls for "pause" and "cease-fire" coming from the left and letting Israel win their war with Hamas. He argues that calls for a ceasefire reward barbarism, and he's right.

The world imposes a double standard on Israel. Israel is expected to act with "restraint", but no such expectation attaches to the Arab Muslims. Here's Continetti:

The usual double standard is hard at work: Hamas terrorists spent years planning the murder of more than 1,400 Jews on October 7, and Hamas terrorists continue to hold hundreds of captives, including Americans, while shelling Israel with indiscriminate rocket fire. Yet it is somehow Israel's responsibility to exercise self-restraint.

This interpretation of the situation is entirely backward. Hamas could end all this tomorrow if it released the hostages, put down its arms, and surrendered. Hamas, not Israel, is the aggressor. Hamas, not Israel, is the "occupier" of the Gaza Strip. Hamas, not Israel, rejects international law. Hamas, not Israel, steals food, fuel, and water from civilians. And the fact that these words need to be written at all is evidence that the culture-producing institutions of the West—the media, the universities, cultural and political celebrities—are irreparably broken.

A ceasefire would be worse than useless. If Israel were to end combat operations now, with Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip and captives hidden in the maze of tunnels known as the Gaza Metro, then the terrorists will score a remarkable victory. Harassment and attacks on Jews worldwide will surge.

The West has flooded Gaza with millions of dollars in aid but Hamas steals it from the Palestinian people for whom it's intended and uses it to build hundreds of miles of underground tunnels in which to launch their terror attacks against Israel.

Continetti points out that if Israel halts its campaign to destroy these tunnels and Hamas' organization with them then the terrorists will just reorganize and rebuild:

Hamas will regroup. Its strategy of using civilians as pawns in a chess match for global opinion will have proven effective once again. Its ranks will swell. It will plot its next move.

"The Al-Aqsa Deluge"—Hamas's name for its October 7 crime against humanity—"is just the first time," Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas factotum, said on Lebanese television the other day. "And there will be a second, a third, a fourth [until Israel is annihilated]."

Hamad's words reinforce the lesson of October 7: You cannot maintain a ceasefire against homicidal maniacs with genocidal intent. Since 2007, Israel believed that Hamas could be bought off, that the price of détente was rocket fire and intermittent conflict to "mow the lawn" of terrorists.

Détente was an illusion. Hamas used the pause between wars to plan the worst terrorist attack in Israel's history. Hamas will do so again if given the chance.

Someone once noted the truth that if the Arabs would lay down their arms there'd be no more violence in the Middle East. If the Israelis were to lay down their arms they'd cease to exist.

The pressure on Israel to abandon its war of survival is global and intense and the pressure on President Biden to force Israel into a cease-fire is causing him to waver:

The cretins at the United Nations want a ceasefire. So-called peace activists have similar demands. American campuses are rife with pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic voices. The socialist "Squad" of Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives defame AIPAC and the pro-Israel community while regurgitating Hamas propaganda.

Bureaucrats in the State Department and the White House are livid at President Biden for supporting a democratic nation's right to self-defense. Democratic strategists worry that Biden's commitment to Israel might cost him votes in Michigan, throwing the election to Donald Trump.

And Biden is starting to crack.

At an event in Minnesota on Wednesday, a deranged heckler screamed at Biden to impose a ceasefire. Biden could have stayed silent. He could have told off the heckler by detailing Hamas's evil—yes, evil—acts and by saying America will stand with Israel in this existential struggle. Instead he told the crowd that "I think we need a pause. A pause means give time to get the prisoners out."

Continetti points out what should be obvious to anyone who has observed the Israeli/Palestinian conflict over the past fifty years - a pause simply won't work.

There have been pauses in the fighting to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. Hamas steals the aid and uses it for its war machine. There have been pauses to let civilians in Gaza evacuate to the southern part of the Strip or, in select cases, transit the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Hamas won't let people leave. Since October 7, Hamas has released five hostages. Hundreds are still in captivity—including 32 children. The youngest is nine months old. Nine months.

Hamas doesn't need a pause to "get the prisoners out." It needs a conscience. And it needs to pay.

Read the rest of his column at the link. He closes with this:

Why not try a different strategy? Why not say that Israel has every right to protect itself, that Hamas is responsible for every life lost, and that America will stand with Israel until the job is done? No more equivocation. No more dithering. No more obedience to the politically correct. Let Israel win.