Let’s get this out of the way early: violence works. This is a difficult concept for most people in democracies to grasp, because we don’t think of ourselves as criminals. But occasionally righteous people in righteous countries find themselves in a situation where it is kill or be killed. The only way to conclusively defeat an enemy that has no interest in peace, but an intense interest in murdering you, is to thoroughly and convincingly defeat them militarily.
Fortunately, history judges us favorably in a moral sense when we unleash the violence. Nobody blames America for the 7 million Germans who died in World War II. Very few blame us for stopping the Japanese kamikaze pilots with a well-placed nuclear bomb. Likewise, history judges us very unfavorably when we unleash the violence when there is no threat to us, such as in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan in the latter 90% of the war.
Which brings me to Israel. As I’m writing this, the country is being bombed by terrorists, this time in the Gaza Strip. It’s a frequent scene, whether the enemy is Saddam Hussein, Hezbollah, or Hamas. Every few years the Israelis are terrorized. It’s a bizarre situation, as militarily Israel could kill every human being in the Gaza Strip, and quickly. But they choose not to.
Meanwhile America, for as long as I’ve been living, relentlessly pressures Israel, and to a lesser extent the Palestinians, to make peace. This especially ramps up in the second term of American presidents, a.k.a. legacy building time. It fails every time. I lived in Israel in 2001. Believe me, the people there totally understand what Westerners don’t get: the Palestinians have zero interest in making peace. Hey geniuses, maybe the first clue was when they started teaching their kids in school maps showing Israel magically erased.
So how about a different approach. I propose a modified Ron Paul/Rand Paul approach. First, the Ron Paul approach. Israel, we have total faith that you can defend yourself militarily. We are not going to impose ourselves on you morally to force you into a crappy peace plan, with you giving up part of your most treasured possession, Jerusalem. We’re actually not going to pressure either side. Also, we are not going to second guess you in deciding how you are going to defend yourself against your enemies. If you decide you need to kill some people to defend yourself, so be it. We will not impose our moral judgment on you. We, and the rest of the world, understand what the response would be if America was repeatedly bombed by Mexico.
If you decide you have to really unleash the violence, and kill a lot of people to defend yourself, so be it. And if you decide that you have to permanently end the conflict with overwhelming military force, we won’t make any judgments there either. You will never hear the idiotic phrase “proportionate response” from our lips.
The Rand Paul part comes in when we verbally express our strong support for Israel, unlike Ron, who refuses to take sides between countries. Check out YouTube. I’d love to have a libertarian in the White House, but unfortunately Republicans won’t win another election in my lifetime.
Back to Israel. Look, I know that many people think that this approach would be horrible for the Palestinians. However, I really, really believe that giving Israel a free reign would ultimately be good for them. Back to my examples above. Germany is now a strong democracy and has the strongest economy in Europe, and it’s not particularly close. Japan has been Democratic since World War II and has the third biggest economy in the world. When Israel’s enemies finally understand that attacks on Israel actually lead to the pain and suffering happening to them, the attacks will end. They can then move towards a democracy where women can go out alone and drive, people are not used as human shields, hospitals are not storehouses for weapons and terrorists, and innocent civilians are not bombed.
Have a good night everyone.
JR
