|
Trending Topics
|
Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-902729
Israel's Solid Security Consensus Replaces Passive "Stability"
(Jerusalem Post) David M. Weinberg - Today there is a broad Israeli consensus on foreign and defense policy issues. The past three years of devastating enemy attacks on Israel have taught Israelis the need to maintain a proactive defense posture, including strategic ascendancy against enemies near and far. Consequently, Israel will not return to the containment policies of recent decades that prioritized restraint and diplomacy over enemy degradation and military triumph. Israel understands today that it must continue to make fierce and overwhelming moves against enemy strongholds from Sidon to Khan Yunis and from Nablus to Isfahan. Israel will attack, not defend. It will initiate, not respond. It will hunt down its enemies, not be hounded by them. Israel also has adopted a buffer-zone military strategy, with areas of long-term IDF control over borders where territory is dominated by Islamist-jihadist organizations. Israelis realize that their neighbors will seek true reconciliation only when Jerusalem is strong. Opposition figures now challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for leadership have nothing to say differently from him in this regard. In Feb. 2024, 99 out of 120 members of Knesset - essentially representing the entire country aside from Israeli Arabs - voted to reject unilateral recognition by European and other countries of Palestinian statehood. Indeed, recent polls indicate that 80% of Israelis, again almost the entire Jewish public, oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state. In July 2025, a majority of 71 Knesset members passed a non-binding resolution in favor of applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley. In March 2026, the Knesset approved a law by 93-0 enabling the prosecution of more than 400 of Hamas's Nukhba terrorists detained in Israel. Protests from the world against these trials will fall on defiant and deaf Israeli ears. World leaders should get used to a revamped Middle East strategic situation anchored by a hard-hitting, confident, and undivided Israel. The writer is a managing senior fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy.