Max Boot, on why the world won’t allow Israel to win the war, or beyond that, why they cannot allow themselves to do so:
The essential dilemma Israel faces is this: It can’t ignore Hamas’s attacks, not only because of the damage they inflict, but also because of the terrible precedent they set. Israel has always been a state that is one battle away from destruction, and it cannot allow its enemies to think that it can be attacked with impunity. But at the same time Israel cannot do what it takes to wipe out the enemy, because of the constraints imposed by its own public, which is far less willing than in the past to suffer or inflict bloodletting.
So the Jewish state is forced to fight an unsatisfying war of attrition with Hamas, Hezbollah and other entities bent on its destruction. The current incursions are only one stage of this lengthy struggle. The odds are that once Israeli troops leave, Hamas will rebuild its infrastructure, forcing the Israelis to go back in the future.
This is the definition of a quagmire, yet Israel has no choice but to keep doing what it’s doing. Unlike the French in Algeria or the Americans in Vietnam, it cannot simply pack its bags and go home. If Israel is to continue to exist, it will have to continue to wage low-intensity war for a long time to come — definitely years, probably decades, possibly centuries.
Sadly, there are no good solutions. Does the incoming Obama administration understand this, and the nature of Israel’s (and our) enemy?
Oh I don’t know. I think Boot is indulging in the default world-weary cynicism of the journalist. There are some useful things that might work:
(1) Finish the wall.
(2) Develop better close-in missile defense, like the Patriot only better. Israel will obviously win any technology arms race with Hamas, or even Iran.
(3) Work harder at playing Fatah off against Hamas, the West Bank off against Gaza. The worst outcome possible for Hamas would be a West Bank that is increasingly prosperous and at peace with Israel. Thick as he is, the generic 15-year-old Palestinian “youth” (or at least his mother) is going to notice after a while if his cousin from Ramallah has a cell phone, TV, his own room (with a real floor), and vacations at a real beach. This is, after all, what brought down the Soviets. The fatal contrast with what it was like to live in the West.
(4) Adjust how Palestinians in Israel are treated. Instead of hiring lots of temporaries, hire fewer temporaries but work at making their employment and representation more permanent. Subvert them. Another fatal blow to Hamas and its ilk would be plenty of Arab Israeli citizens, IDF soldiers, and Knesset members. Ideally, Israel would become more like the US, a country that continually changes its ethnic makeup as waves of immigrants arrive, but with a culture that is so infectious that it quickly subverts and displaces whatever values the immigrants bring with them. You want Arabs wanting to move to Israel, and then turning rapidly into Israelis, fully invested in defending the state.
(5) Get more aggressive about the media game. They’re doing better with their YouTube videos, but they need to really take the gloves off with the MSM, and fully exploit the opportunities offered by the Internet. Surely some dirt can be dug up about those AP stringers, the BBC anchors…? This is no time for Marquess of Queensbury rules. Israel — indeed, much of the sane West — should consider itself quite at war with the intellectual quislings among us, many of whom work for the media. No quarter should be given.
(6) Go Soviet on Hamas when there’s no actual fighting. The Soviets were a master at neutralizing leaders, because they would stoop to anything, and they were well-schooled in using the follies and pecadilloes of people to control them. There must be plenty of Russian emigres who can show them how. My impression is the Israelis have chosen to try to dominate Hamas by being bigger and scarier. But people are almost never well-controlled by fear, especially the very young people in Gaza. Humiliation, pride, sex, greed — these are much surer methods, and should be adopted preferentially.
As long as we’re dealing out hypotheticals and wish lists about the “Palestian Problem,” consider:
It’s a well-established historical precedent that countries that launch wars of aggression and are then defeated are often deprived of some of their antebellum territory by the victors. Most notably, this happened to Germany twice in the century just past. “Palestine” styles itself a country? Fine. It can be post-1945 Germany. Or post-1967 Syria, Jordan or Egypt, to cite even more immediately relevant examples. Gaza is making trouble? Take it away. Seacoasts are wasted on people who would rather use beaches for weapon smuggling than for sun tanning and sipping parasol drinks like God (if not Allah) intended. Move all the Palestinians out of Gaza and dump them in the West Bank. Let all the Israelis who formerly lived in Gaza move back. Give them all the Israelis currently living in the West Bank as new neighbors. Finish The Wall around the West Bank. Brick up all the current crossing points. Build robot anti-missile/artillery systems and run them on automatic. Leave the Palestinians to go to Hell in their own way in their deservedly abbreviated country.
israel needs to find some country (preferably far away)that itcan bribe into accepting palestinian emigrants.
A lot of them.
Sponsor them if neccessary.