A War That Must Be Won

As it stands today, Israel will never win the global propaganda war. It must win the war against Hamas as quickly and as comprehensibly as possible.
A War That Must Be Won
Military action at a location given as Gaza, amid the conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group, in this handout image released on Nov. 5, 2023. Israel Defense Forces/Handout via Reuters
James Gorrie
Updated:
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Commentary

Israel is battling Hamas, a largely anti-semitic media, the Islamist diaspora, Iran, and time in a war they can’t afford to lose.

The stakes for Israel couldn’t be higher. In what was and remains a barbaric and heinous attack on Israeli citizens of all ages, Israel is rapidly finding itself waging a war of words and truth against much of the world in addition to fighting against Hamas in Gaza.
In his speech to the nation of Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spelled out the nature and meaning of the war against Hamas, and its sponsors in the region, which include Iran and Syria, when he said, “Never again is now.”

Spirit of Auschwitz Alive in Hamas

He’s right in at least one context. If nothing else, the utter inhumanity of the attacks on Oct. 7 showed the Israelis in stark and unmistakable terms that the dark spirit of Auschwitz and Dachau has found a home in the hearts of too many of the people living in Gaza.
Unfortunately, anti-semitism, that ancient, vile contagion of the human soul, now carries the day in the streets of London, Paris, Brussels, Melbourne, and New York, just as it does in capitals such as Tehran and Damascus. With politically energized Islamist populations numbering in the millions across Western Europe, North America, and Latin America, anti-semitic pressure against Israel is rising in those areas as well, especially among university students.

International Support for Israel Weakening

The meaning of this rapidly emerging global reality is surely not lost on the Israelis. They know that in terms of enjoying international support, the tide is rising and the skies are quickly darkening against their cause with each passing day. As the destruction and death toll in Gaza climb, so too does the world’s condemnation.
On the other hand, the Israelis know that if they don’t push Hamas out of Gaza forever right now, they'll be fighting the same battle—or worse—sooner than later. As the calls for a ceasefire in Gaza gain traction, so does international isolation. The pressure on Israel’s leadership to agree to a ceasefire immediately is increasing.

A Deadly Ceasefire

The issue is that a ceasefire doesn’t help Israel defend itself. If anything, it would make it even more vulnerable to attacks and leave it less able to protect its people and country.

The rationale is clear and simple. To not destroy Hamas, Iran’s proxy terror organization that runs Gaza, is to lose.

To not deny Hamas the capabilities to launch missiles and transport men and weapons into Israel via a vast network of tunnels is to lose.

To give in to international pressure would demonstrate that the loudest voices of your enemies can dictate policy to the Israeli government. That, too, would be a loss and invite more of the same kind of attacks as the one Hamas launched on Oct. 7 and likely much worse.

But Israel faces more than Hamas’s missiles from above and from below in their tunnels. The Middle East’s lone democracy that allows religious freedom and is, in fact, 20 percent Arab, faces the unending condemnation and mainly pro-Palestinian reportage from the global media.

A Slanted Narrative

Israel also faces a tremendously negative narrative. That narrative typically criticizes the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for its lack of proportionate response, higher Palestinian casualties, Israel’s unfair advantage, and how the IDF recklessly or even purposely kills Palestinian children and that it’s starving Gaza of fuel, food, and water.
The venality of such slanted reportage is despicable. Hamas has tens of thousands of gallons of fuel and massive stocks of food and water. Worse, Hamas hides behind or beneath schools, hospitals, and mosques and prevents citizens from fleeing IDF attacks on Gaza. There are even reports of Hamas snipers allegedly shooting Gazan women and children as they attempted to escape to the south, for which Hamas tried to blame the IDF.

Hamas is rarely truly condemned for these atrocities. On the contrary, they’re often celebrated, particularly among the radical cadres that have infested academia for decades. In short, Hamas is portrayed as the underdog, not the brutes that they truly are. This kind of yellow journalism paints Israel as fascists and the Palestinians in Gaza as freedom fighters.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

Winning May Mean More War

Israel is surrounded by corrupt, brutal dictatorships whose potentates become billionaires from oil sales, foreign aid from the United States and Europe, or both. In fact, Hamas is also led by billionaires directing their war against Israel from the comfort of their penthouses in Qatar, far away from the battle.
Finally, as Israel penetrates deeper into Gaza and degrades Hamas, it runs the risk that other regional states and terror organizations will enter the war. That includes Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in southern Lebanon, and Iran’s Houthi proxies in Yemen, but it may also soon include Algeria and Iraq.

In other words, the more success Israel has in Gaza against Hamas, the more enemies it will have to fight. As it stands today, Israel will never win the global propaganda war. It must win the war against Hamas as quickly and as comprehensively as possible while convincing would-be adversaries that the price they’ll pay for waging war against them will be much higher than the one that Hamas is paying.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
James Gorrie
James Gorrie
Author
James R. Gorrie is the author of “The China Crisis” (Wiley, 2013) and writes on his blog, TheBananaRepublican.com. He is based in Southern California.
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