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What America Can Learn from Israel on the Battlefield

(Gatestone Institute) Daniel Greenfield - America has never successfully liberated and held territory from Islamic terrorists. Both Afghanistan and Iraq are now controlled by Islamic terrorists. Many top U.S. defense officials who oversaw both disasters have been criticizing Israel for not following in their footsteps. Rather than trying to hold territory filled with an enemy population among whom the terrorists move, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has used its manpower to attack concentrations of enemy forces, moving quickly and at times unpredictably, while refusing to get bogged down by trying to hold any particular area. This strategy has frustrated the entire Hamas war plan, which depended on using terror attacks to pin military units in place, and then launching ambushes. Israel learned a hard lesson from Oct. 7. It's not interested in playing defense anymore. Complaints that Israel has to "reclear" areas that it's already taken miss the point. The enemy population supports the terrorists and so the area can't be "cleared" or "stabilized." Reclearing is a strength because when terrorists return to territory that Israel is now familiar with, it can turn the tables and launch surprise attacks. Israel is not fighting to take land, but to grind down enemy forces wherever they operate. Holding and stabilizing territory bogs down armies in defensive modes, while Israel's approach is purely offensive and plays to its strengths. The writer is a Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
2024-06-11 00:00:00
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