A Strange War

Israel is at last being given an opportunity to unload on jihadists.

Victor Davis Hanson of National Review Online brings us this essay in which he looks at some of the oddities in the recent Israeli conflict with Hamas and Hezbollah Islamofascists. In particular he notes that it has perhaps come as a bit of a shock to many on the Angry Left to find that other Arab nations are not lining up behind the Jihadist kidnappers and beheaders and are, instead, condemning them while seeming to give Israel a pass in this particular circumstance.

One of the reasons for this has been put forward by Mark Steyn in an interview with Hugh Hewitt in which he pointed out that the Arabs are coming to the realization that their brief time of independence since the end of the First World War and the fall of the Ottoman Empire may come to an end if the Iranians are allowed to dominate the gulf region and create an Empire of their own. And since these terrorists are backed by Syria who are in turned backed by Iran, a victory here would help to prevent such a thing from developing.

This is why we are hearing, once again, the terrible whining and seething of the Angry Left who just can't understand why Israel should be allowed to defend itself without the permission of Kofi Annan and his band of merry oil-for-food pranksters. But as Victor Davis Hanson points out, the world's patience for the Jihadists may have begun to run out. And if that is the case, then we will see more and more nations take the threats of the Jihadists seriously. And that would be good for everyone but the terrorists and the Angry Left.

What should the United States do? If it really cares about human life and future peace, then we should talk ad nauseam about “restraint” and “proportionality” while privately assuring Israel the leeway to smash both Hamas and Hezbollah — and humiliate Syria and Iran, who may well come off very poorly from their longed-for but bizarre war.

Only then will Israel restore some semblance of deterrence and strengthen nascent democratic movements in both Lebanon and even the West Bank. This is the truth that everyone from London to Cairo knows, but dares not speak. So for now, let us pray that the brave pilots and ground commanders of the IDF can teach these primordial tribesmen a lesson that they will not soon forget — and thus do civilization’s dirty work on the other side of the proverbial Rhine.

In this regard, it is time to stop the silly slurs that American policy in the Middle East is either in shambles or culpable for the present war. In fact, if we keep our cool, the Bush doctrine is working. Both Afghans and Iraqis each day fight and kill Islamist terrorists; neither was doing so before 9/11. Syria and Iran have never been more isolated; neither was isolated when Bill Clinton praised the “democracy” in Tehran or when an American secretary of State sat on the tarmac in Damascus for hours to pay homage to Syria ’s gangsters. Israel is at last being given an opportunity to unload on jihadists; that was impossible during the Arafat fraud that grew out of the Oslo debacle. Europe is waking up to the dangers of radical Islamism; in the past, it bragged of its aid and arms sales to terrorist governments from the West Bank to Baghdad.