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Israel's War for Security

(New York Times) Bret Stephens - The war Israel is now waging against Hamas and its allies in Gaza and the West Bank, Hizbullah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iran itself is about security. Israelis want to be able to live safely in their homes without fearing they could be rocketed, pillaged, killed or kidnapped with barely a moment's warning. The threat of a major escalation on Israel's northern border has turned entire cities into ghost towns and displaced more than 60,000 Israelis from their homes. That's the proportional equivalent of two million Americans forced out of their homes. Those who condemn Israel now for its allegedly disproportionate response to the attacks by Hamas and Hizbullah would be more intellectually honest if they asked themselves what they would demand of their own governments if they were in the same situation. Israel's most strident critics insist that the current conflict is about Palestinian existence, but that's a dishonest claim. Israel agreed to a Palestinian Authority in 1993, offered a Palestinian state in 2000 and vacated Gaza in 2005. When campus protesters at Princeton chanted, "We don't want no two states, we want '48," they weren't asking for Israel to accept a Palestinian state. They're demanding Israel's abolition. They are also adopting the views of Hamas, Hizbullah, and Iran.
2024-08-01 00:00:00
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