Michael Oren
WSJ, Oct. 22, 2023
“Only by destroying Hamas can Israel secure our borders and deter our enemies. Only when we have freed ourselves from the threat of Hamas barbarism can we begin restoring our faith in our governing institutions and armed forces. We can believe, as we once did, in the idea of Israel, and preserve its essential soul.”
Israel has to destroy Hamas because the attack of Oct. 7 threatens the country’s existence. If the conflict ends in stalemate or cease-fire, the terrorists will have gotten away with mass atrocities on Israeli soil. We will never be secure from future onslaughts. Tourism and foreign investment will vanish, and many Israelis will raise their children elsewhere.
Victory is necessary to re-establish Israeli deterrence. The attack informs our enemies that our borders are porous and that the Israel Defense Forces, for all their power, lack the ability to defend the country.
Most critically, though, victory is necessary to preserve the idea of Israel, the reason for our existence.
Founded in May 1948, three years after the end of the Holocaust, modern Israel promised to prevent its recurrence. The state, its government and security services, would protect Israelis from further atrocities. Nowhere in the world would Jews be safer than in Israel. Based on that pledge, generations of Israelis sent their children to the army and spent months each year in the reserves. We put up with some of the world’s highest taxes and costs of living, and a political system that was seldom stable.
We believed the state would always be there in our hour of need, whether to rescue Israeli hostages in Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976 or to airlift Ethiopian Jews in the 1980s. This was our social contract, and despite wars, terror attacks and domestic upheavals, it hung together—until Oct. 7.
… [To read the full article, click here]
