In the six months since terrorist supporters successfully branded their campaign to save the Hamas terrorist group as a ‘ceasefire,’ the term was embraced by state governments, the Biden-Harris Regime, and now a growing number of American Jewish liberal groups.
This from frontpagemag.com.
Even formerly pro-Israel figures and organizations are trying to sell the idea of saving Hamas and leaving it in control of Gaza as the right thing to do and even being a ‘victory’ for Israel.
Depicting an Israeli surrender to Hamas in which the Jewish State retreats from Gaza, trades thousands of terrorists for perhaps a dozen hostages, and billions in international aid pour into the coffers of Hamas while Yahya Sinwar holds a parade as a ‘victory’ takes a lot of chutzpah.
Some in Israel are willing to trade anything, including national survival, in exchange for the slim chance of getting some hostages back. American liberal Jewish organizations are focused on electing Comrade Kamala and are willing to trade Israel for Dearborn, Michigan’s votes to do it.
And the same breed of establishment hacks in Israel responsible for Oct 7 are selling the same security snake oil and making the same false promises that they have for the last 30 years.
Writing in Foreign Affairs magazine, retired Israeli Gen. Amos Yadlin, a Labor Party figure who had backed the Iran Deal, and Graham Allison, a Clinton defense official, claimed that, “A Cease-Fire Deal Now Would Be a Victory for Israel.” Yadlin and Allison blamed Netanyahu for failing to accept “a historic strategic victory for Israel” by surrendering to Hamas.
According to the two men:
[All of] Israel’s 13 previous prime ministers [would have also surrendered to Hamas and Israel’s negotiating team] would have accepted the terms of any of the deals that have emerged from the last three rounds of negotiations. [Why even quibble?]
Yadlin and Allison demanded, before falsely claiming the only reason there’s no deal is Netanyahu’s political ambitions:
At this point, what more is Netanyahu waiting for?
What is Netanyahu waiting for? The same thing that FDR was waiting for in 1943.
Roosevelt declared after Pearl Harbor:
No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.
FDR then vowed in 1943:
Our terms to Italy are still the same as our terms to Germany and Japan—unconditional surrender.
We have taken the initiative, and we’re not going to let go of it. We shall not settle for less than total victory.
The D.C. political establishment and chunks of the Israeli one mock the idea of “total victory.”
Echoing the familiar Foggy Bottom meme, the op-ed dismisses that as an elusive ‘total victory.’ But that’s the thing about victory, it’s hard to come by, yet there’s nothing ambiguous about it. Actual victory, not a defeat dressed up in victory drag, is what actually ends wars and secures peace.
The proposal that Israel declare a worthless “mission accomplished” victory and surrender to Hamas is more of the same “mowing the lawn” philosophy that led to Oct 7. Hamas will regroup, rebuild and rearm, and attack again under the shield of whatever worthless deal is signed.
But even worse, Hamas is not looking to make a deal.
An entire network of D.C. and Israeli officials, media and activists have taken to lying about it. Instead, Hamas is using the hostages as leverage to tear apart Israel and destroy its will to fight.
The leftists rioting in Tel Aviv demanding a deal, any deal, and the op-ed, are all examples that show it’s working.
Key security establishment figures like Yadlin have taken to foreign media to argue that the problem is Israel, not Hamas.
Just like Arafat, Hamas has scuttled every deal while directing the blame at Israel. Murdered hostages and selectively released videos are strategically calculated to further divide Israel.
The prospect of a deal has become the best weapon wielded by Hamas. It has Qatari and Iranian backers, and political allies from D.C. to Dearborn.
The reality of any deal is that Hamas is not offering to free all the hostages. All it will propose is the release of some hostages in exchange for thousands of Hamas terrorists, including the perpetrators of Oct 7, and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and then extended negotiations that will twist the knife deeper.
Hamas will celebrate its victory, reclaim control over Gaza, and retain many of the hostages, (or the hostages are likely already dead) while Israeli protesters clash with the government demanding complete appeasement in the hopes that Hamas will release the remaining hostages. That’s what a deal with Hamas means.
Hamas will emerge from Oct 7 victorious, having “demonstrated it could carry out a devastating attack, survive a year of fighting, and reclaim control over Gaza.” It will win the acclaim of the Arab Muslim colonists in Gaza and the West Bank, and of the moslem world.
Hamas will have demonstrated that just like the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Iraq, it could wear down and defeat a non-moslem power, and be on a pathway to creating an Islamic state.
And Israel will emerge from Oct 7 defeated:
– There will be bodies to bury and crushed morale after the recognition that the Islamic terrorists had accomplished their goals and Israel did not,
– Israel will be a divided country in the throes of a circular firing squad as Hamas rejoices, and
– Soldiers will ask themselves why their friends and family members died for no reason.
NOTE: Netanyahu’s call for total victory is the closest thing to a vision for something more than management or appeasement any Israeli prime minister has articulated in a generation.
The alternative to total victory is defeat.
A deal will mean Israel’s moral and strategic defeat. A deal will advance the Hamas vision of the end of Israel. And those advocating for a deal at any cost, dividing and undermining Israel in a time of war, are bringing on Israel’s destruction. And if they are Israeli citizens—or even Jews of another country, for that matter—they are acting in a treasonous manner.
