Israel must prevail against radicals

Dallas Morning News | Rod Dreher:

“If the Israelis lose this war against Hezbollah – and anything short of Hezbollah's virtual annihilation will be taken as a loss by the Arab world – the existence of the Jewish state will be in question.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Mr Dreher uses a thousand year book of Psalms dug up from an Irish bog to illustrate how old the Arab/Israeli struggle is. But he misses the significance of that fact. Today, a thousand years later, Israel exists. And so do its Arab enemies. For Israel, there is no such thing as victory. Or rather, for Israel, survival is victory.

Israel must think in terms of survival, not annihilation of its enemies, even Hezbollah. Israel isn't going to annihilate its enemies by its current invasion of Lebanon. Any more than it annihilated its enemies in its previous wars and occupation of Lebanon. Any more than the US annihilated terrorism in its invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Other opinions appearing on the DMN's editorial and op/ed pages the same day Mr Dreher's viewpoint was published understand the situation better. His own editorial board explains, "Israel's original goal was to cripple Hezbollah, an outcome that some factions within the country now suggest is not possible militarily. The reality is that a search for Hezbollah can't be waged effectively or indefinitely from the air without massive civilian casualties. And the prospect of Israeli ground forces going door-to-door to root out Hezbollah is a prescription for radicalizing Lebanon's government and widening the conflict to Syria and Iran."

It's not in Israel's interest to widen the war. If anything is a threat to annihilate Israel, it would be a nuclear attack launched by a madman in Iran. Like the US before it in Iraq, Israel is learning that it cannot win a war on terror militarily. Military force can play a role, but what comes after must also be planned and executed well. Without an exit strategy in Iraq, the US finds its strategic position in the world worsening due to its reliance on its military. Now, Israel finds itself facing the same threat, unless it can find its own exit strategy from Lebanon.

Rami G. Khouri, in another viewpoints piece in the DMN, explains what that exit strategy will look like. "The elements of a diplomatic solution are obvious to all parties: a cease-fire, an exchange of prisoners and an international force to separate the parties and cement the cease-fire."

Sometimes, a ceasefire, even if not victory, is the best you can hope for. It means survival. Stubbornly fighting on for victory only increases the likelihood of total defeat.