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Israel's Enemies Have Only Been Weakened, Not Defeated
(Washington Times) Clifford D. May - The hostage release and ceasefire President Trump brokered in October has brought Israelis palpable relief and renewed optimism. However, they also recognize that peace is not yet at hand. "We're living with traumas and scars," an Israeli brigadier general told me. "But we're resilient. We need to be because our enemies have only been weakened, not defeated." Iran's rulers and their main proxies (Hamas, Hizbullah and the Houthis) have no interest in a "two-state solution," except as a step toward a "final solution" in the sense the Nazis used that phrase. Their goal remains the extermination of the people of Israel. There's a word for that: genocide - one of the crimes Israel is relentlessly accused of. A new Israeli defense posture is evolving. It will not depend on wishful thinking or deterrence. It will focus on early detection of threats, followed by kinetic operations to prevent those threats from metastasizing. This will not make Israelis more popular, but it's necessary if the people of Israel are to live. The writer is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.