Israel’s righteous war and lessons for Americans

Years of restraint have given way to a culminating punishing assault by Israel, and now it is eliminating Hezbollah’s top leadership in Lebanon. It should not come as a surprise that Israel is thumbing its nose at the Biden administration, which urged it to negotiate a deal with the Iranian-supported terror group rather than escalate the war in the Middle East. How could Israel negotiate with a group that refuses to stop its terror attacks in the north, displacing tens of thousands of innocent Israelis, until Israel stops its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza? Israel will not stop its campaign against the terrorists who on Oct. 7, 2023, carried out the largest murderous assault against the Jewish people since the Holocaust until it is eliminated and unable to reconstitute militarily.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stressed Israel’s willingness to handle only Hamas and to end its strikes against Hezbollah if only Hezbollah would stop its constant attacks. Hezbollah leaders would not stop—and were under the impression that the mighty United States would shield them from Israel. They were wrong, and now they are gone. Israel eliminated Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and then swiftly dispatched his likely successor, Nabil Kaouk, too. Israeli Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said, “After almost a year of Israel warning the world and telling them that Hezbollah must be stopped, Israel is doing what every sovereign state in the world would do if they had a terror organization that seeks their destruction on their border, taking the necessary action to protect our people so that Israeli families can leave their homes safely and securely.” Quite so.

Beyond the welcome dose of moral clarity about a just government’s primary duty, Americans should learn three big lessons.

One, it is a sign of deeply lamentable diminished American influence with close allies that Israel must depart so openly and explicitly from the U.S. president’s counsel and demands. But national leaders must provide for the protection of their people, and the Israeli government is doing just that. A stronger U.S. presidency would have provided Israeli leadership the public diplomatic and military support it needed to quickly and clearly achieve its military aims against Hamas. Pressuring Israel to “de-escalate” against terrorists who seek to inflict pain and suffering against Israeli citizens is incoherent, a recipe for a bloodier and more costly war, and morally inverted. According to a well-sourced Tablet Magazine report, Ukraine is learning from Israel to depart from U.S. demands to stand down against its aggressor. This was at the forefront of Ukrainian leaders’ minds when it seized Russian territory over the objections of the Biden administration.

Two, Israel has succeeded in finally taking out the top leadership of those responsible for killing thousands of Americans. Indeed, a week and a half ago, Israel successfully killed Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah leader behind a trio of bombing attacks that killed more than 250 Americans, including 241 U.S. Marines. War is a terrible thing, and it is good to avoid it when possible. But avoiding it altogether is not the highest good of a just government. Sometimes justice does require it, and the elimination of this shared enemy of Israel and the United States is justice.

Three, the threats from Islamist militants continue to persist more than two decades after 9/11. Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah has at least diminished this international terrorism group, but it is not the only threat. The source of the funding, training, and ideological motivation for many of the Islamist groups threatening the United States is Iran, which continues to develop missiles that can reach the United States and is only days away from having a nuclear weapon if it chooses to finally take that leap. The United States has a missile defense system designed to protect it against missiles from North Korea and Iran. But as the threats continue to escalate and adversaries become bolder and take more risks, it is imperative that the United States remain more dedicated to our security than our enemies are to harming Americans and weakening the United States. This means we must advance the U.S. homeland missile defense system to provide the most effective defense against enemies’ missiles from wherever they are launched.

Since the Cold War, an essential aspect of the U.S. strategy to keep Americans at home safe is supporting allies abroad when they are under assault from shared adversaries. In both cases, with Israel and Ukraine, the Biden administration has been more focused on holding them back and calling for their restraint than helping them (prudently and without constantly announcing to adversaries what the United States will not do to help the defenders) deal punishing blows against the aggressors. This has led to more escalation, not less, and on terms that give the advantage to the aggressors.

No government can eliminate all the threats facing Americans, but the choices of the current administration have made them more acute. And without a clear change in course in foreign affairs and domestic security, it is impossible to see how it will not get worse.