Last week, Israel announced the launch of “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” in Gaza. But why hasn’t it won till now? Gaza is a mere 140 square miles. Germany, in comparison, is 140,000 square miles. Yet, the Allies overran this vast territory in just eight months in World War II while Israel – after 19 months – still hasn’t conquered Gaza even though the latter, unlike Germany, possesses no tanks, no airplanes, and no submarines.
Why?
The answer is simple. The Allies were ruthless. Israel is not.
And that’s a problem. In On War, perhaps the most famous treatise on the subject ever written, Carl von Clausewitz argues that the worst errors in war “proceed from a spirit of benevolence.” He also writes that to achieve victory, a nation must 1) destroy the enemy’s military; 2) conquer the enemy’s country; and 3) subdue “the will of the enemy.”
Gaza’s population has not been subdued. Far from it. It’s still launching rockets into Israel, still holding hostages, and still firing at IDF soldiers. Indeed, Palestinian Arabs have been waging war on Jews in the Land of Israel for over 100 years now. What will make them stop? Only overwhelming force that ends in – not a ceasefire agreement – but unconditional surrender.
When Ulysses S Grant first insisted on unconditional surrender during the Civil War, his Confederate counterpart, Simon Bolivar Buckner, complained that the demand was both “ungenerous and unchivalrous.” But Buckner acquiesced. He had no choice.
Neither did the Japanese in August 1945. They had lost 150,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and stood to lose even more lives if America made good on its threat to drop additional atom bombs on Japan. Over the previous five months, the Japanese had also suffered 250,000 deaths from America’s firebombing campaign, which devastated 66 cities with 300 million pounds of explosives.
Japan was a fanatical power. Years before the Palestinian Arabs even thought of strapping suicides belts to their bodies, the Japanese greenlit 3,000 kamikaze attacks against the U.S. navy. Yet, Japan ultimately surrendered. In fact, America crushed the will of the Japanese people to such an extent that when General Douglas McArthur and his staff landed in Japan on August 30, they didn’t even carry firearms.
Can an Israeli general today walk in Gaza with an unarmed entourage? The question is laughable. The Arab street – to say nothing of Hamas terrorists – would tear them to shreds.
Israel therefore has no choice: It must fight like the British and Americans did in World War II. And yes, that means targeting civilians, who form the very backbone of society. Liberals believe killing civilians is immoral, but our grandparents didn’t think so. Seventy percent of Americans supported bombing Japanese cities after Pearl Harbor, and the media practically “celebrated [General Curtis] LeMay’s nightly destruction” of Japan, writes Pulitzer Prize finalist James Scott. President Truman summed it up best: “When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast. It is most regrettable but nevertheless true.”
Interestingly, in recent years, moral philosophers have increasingly acknowledged that drawing a sharp line between “guilty soldiers” and “innocent civilians” is illogical. Many soldiers are clueless 18-year-old kids while many civilians energetically contribute to their country’s war effort.
As Law Professor Aaron Xavier Fellmeth writes, “[C]ombatants generally do not operate as independent agents. They are enmeshed in a societal fabric that includes a support structure encompassing most classes of working civilians.” These civilians “perform an indispensable role in the success of the armed forces, providing funds, power generation, food, clothing, supplies, armaments, and ammunition to the armed forces.”
In short, fighters on the frontline need the support of the home front. Absent that support, they have no weapons, no food, no clothing, and no morale. In a place like Gaza, they also have no place to hide.
In fact, I would argue that the Palestinian Arab population is the least innocent in the history of warfare (with the possible exception of the ancient Spartans). If an American civilian had somehow wandered into Berlin or Tokyo in the middle of World War II, he would have been arrested in all likelihood, not killed. An Israeli civilian, however, who wanders into Gaza will be lynched. And lynches are carried out by mobs of civilians, not armed combatants.
So if Israel wants to win, it must crush the will of Gaza’s population. Yes, doing so may seem “monstrous,” but even more monstrous is fighting “gently,” which will not only prolong this war but set the stage for future rounds of conflict. Napoleon said it best: “If you make war, wage it with energy and severity; it is the only means of making it shorter and consequently less deplorable for mankind.”
Everyone wants peace in the Middle East. Ironically, though, merciless warfare is the best chance of achieving it. We devastated Germany and Japan in World War II, but both countries became U.S. allies immediately after the war, and remain our allies 80 years later. So to those who ask if Israelis and Palestinian Arabs can ever live in harmony, the answer is “Yes.” But only after the latter know in the very soul of their being that they have been defeated.
Elliot Resnick, PhD, is the former chief editor of The Jewish Press, a podcast host, and the author and/or editor of 10 books, including “In a World Gone Mad: An Appeal for Sane Thinking on Israel, Trump, War & More.”
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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