For far too many years, many figures in the west adopted the mantra that there are no military solutions to conflicts.
In conflicts, especially ones involving a terrorist or paramilitary organization, there is usually an imbalance of power.
The role of the terrorist organization is not to defeat an army or destroy a country in a full-scale war, it is to inflict pain, violence and bloodshed to the point that the stronger party sues for peace on generous terms, which usually weakens it.
In the over 100-year-old conflict against Jewish sovereignty in its ancestral and indigenous homeland by Arab violent rejectionism and terrorism, it was understood a half century ago that no regional army could defeat the Jewish State.
It is certainly no coincidence that the surge of Palestinian Arab terrorism, especially on the international stage, began after the Yom Kippur War, which ended with an Israel victory.
Since that time, Israel’s enemies understood that the rules of warfare had changed in the perception of many in the west, possibly as a result of the Vietnam War.
The drumbeat of no military solution to conflicts had started to gather apace.
The resolution to America’s incursions into Afghanistan and Iraq in recent years has only cemented this belief.
Unfortunately, for Israel, in contradistinction to these wars, we cannot just remove our armies one day from the frontlines and return home, because the frontlines are our homes.
When the State of Israel goes to war, as it had to do on October 7th, it has no choice but to win and defeat and destroy its enemy, anything short of that would be a disaster.
In the last five months, the IDF has displayed a heroism and courage that has overwhelmed Hamas. Of course, it is easy to say that Israel is the stronger party and should be defeating Hamas, but to do it with such speed sends a clear message to our western allies that it is possible to win in asymmetrical urban warfare.
Perhaps what is galling to many of Israel’s doubters and enemies in the west is that it is shattering the paradigm that there are no military solutions to conflicts, thus weakening the terrorist darlings of the extreme Left around the world.
Nevertheless, as Israel moves towards defeating Hamas, it must start to seriously look to the north.
Hezbollah has been more than a thorn in the side of the Jewish State for many decades, it is a threat to Israel’s sovereignty and existence.
It does not just act as Iran’s main deterrent against an Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons program, it has genocidal designs of its own.
In 2002, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, said that if all the Jews gather in Israel, it will save him the trouble of chasing them down around the world.
Hezbollah terrorists don’t just talk but have long been preparing a plan of attack and destruction on the north of Israel which could dwarf the violence and bloodshed of October 7th.
This is one of the reasons why the Israeli Government decided to evacuate around 100,000 of its northern residents when Hezbollah decided to join the war against the Jewish State.
To try and deal with the Hezbollah threat, Israel has tried every non-military option.
It has tried diplomatically appealing to the international community and international institutions to either disarm Hezbollah or at least push it back from the border.
As the IDF website states succinctly: “The international community, through the UN Security Council, has demanded multiple times that Hezbollah disarm. Instead, Hezbollah has continually ignored these demands. They ignored UN Resolution 1701, which called for a zone free of armed personnel besides the army of Lebanon. They ignored UN Resolution 1559 and the Lebanese Taif Agreement, which ended the Lebanese Civil War and called for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias. Hezbollah clearly shows it has no intention of ever laying down its arms.”
This means that Israel has to force Hezbollah to lay down its arms, or at least to force it far back from the border to lessen its threat.
That is why, when, not if, Israel is forced to go to war with Hezbollah, it must not only defeat it, the IDF must create a security zone deep into Lebanon to ensure that Israel’s citizens will not be threatened again.
This is the only solution to Israel’s conflict in the north, and it is clearly a military one.
For decades, Israel has tried to deal with this threat in every single non-violent manner, but each attempt has failed miserably and the evacuation of our citizens from their homes has provided a great and largely unearned victory for Hezbollah and Iran.
Israel must take back the advantage and defeat Hezbollah like the IDF is defeating Hamas in Gaza, and any “day after plan” must include a deep and hermetic security zone.
This is the only solution that will bring long-term peace and security.
