Cal Thomas: Wishful thinking

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Thursday, October 12th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. WORLD Commentator Cal Thomas now on how the Hamas attack proves that Israel should stop making concessions.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTARY: On Sept. 22, 2005, Israel completed its unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. It did not take someone with the power of an Old Testament prophet to predict what would come next. Hamas almost immediately filled the vacuum and began planning terrorist attacks that have continued since then.

Last week’s attack, which nearly overwhelmed the Jewish State, has resulted (so far) in the deaths of hundreds of Israelis, the wounding of many hundreds more, and the taking of hostages including Americans by Hamas. Israeli soldiers and civilians, some of them women, children, and the elderly and disabled were also targeted. Babies have been murdered.

The Biden administration and several European governments condemned the attacks but encouraged the terrorists by pressuring Israel over many years to do more to seek peace with the Palestinians. The more concessions Israel has made, the more the terrorists are encouraged in their pursuit of eradicating Israel.

Wasn’t “land for peace” supposed to be the magic formula? Didn’t the West believe in this doctrine and hasn’t Israel done all the giving and received only war and terrorism in return? The West should concede the formula is wrong.

This is the premise in Israeli commentator Caroline Glick’s book, The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East. She writes: “Between 1970 and 2013, the United States presented nine different peace plans for Israel and the Palestinians…and for the past twenty years, the two-state solution has been the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy. But despite this laser focus, American efforts to implement a two-state peace deal have all been dismal failures.”

Her proposals include a full annexation of the West Bank which Israel and the Bible refer to as Judea and Samaria. It may sound radical, until one considers the alternatives the West has been pushing almost since the founding of modern Israel in 1948. Continuing to follow the same path that hasn’t worked in the past only guarantees more terrorism and war in the future, as we are witnessing in the present. Wishful thinking never produces the results the wishers seek to achieve. Instead of more of the same, what’s needed is less of the same and in fact none of the same.

In an appearance at the White House Tuesday afternoon, President Biden made the familiar statements about supporting Israel, but said nothing about Iran which funds Hamas and trains its terrorists. Later, national security advisor Jake Sullivan said there was no evidence implicating Iran directly in the attack. Well that’s like pouring gasoline around the house and having someone else light the fire. In response to a question about refreezing that $6 billion on the way to Iran, Sullivan weakly responded it hasn’t gotten there yet.

The lesson that never seems to be learned is that when one bargains with evil, like Hamas, evil wins. The goal should be to defeat evil and in that pursuit Israel deserves the support of all who share her greater goal of true peace.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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