Dear Dave,
About the Donald’s remark, “Finish the job,” I would like to make some remarks. But, first, for the rest of our group, let me introduce myself so they can understand where I’m coming from. You and I have known each other since 1967 starting when we were USAF lieutenants stationed in Germany. Before then I had lived in Turkey for two years developing contacts with all varieties of Muslims to include Palestine refugees. To this day, I have dear friends there and I will state categorically that the Palestinians, as a people, have been screwed royally since 1948. They were evicted from their homes and subsequently have been used as political pawns by their erstwhile leaders. That sad story is a subject for lengthy discussions. However, for now, those wishing to know more about me, I invite them to my website, www.lloydmuller.com. There they can read my musings on its blog and excerpts from the books I have written.
Now, about Donald and his remark, there is very little I like about the man or his ideas, but his comment was perceptive and not to be lightly dismissed. To understand why, we need to go back to my questions of “why should change be made?”
From the Israeli perspective, Netanyahu is prime minister of a deeply riven nation. The people there have been attacked for years with guerrilla raids and terrorist killings. I have seen the bunker built by a friend next to his house where he and his family have sat while calling me during air raids. The far right remembers well the Shoah (Holocaust) and say, “never again.” However, many of them are Ultra-Orthodox who claim exemption from the military while demanding non-observers to fight the wars. Those people loyally serve from 18 years of age to 55 either in the active forces or the reserves. Call ups are frequent leading to disjointed civilian lives. Among them are those who are bitter about this dichotomy between Orthodox and everyone else. Next, many secular Israelis believe that peace can only be achieved by acceding to Muslim demands that land be granted for a Palestinian state (among them my friend who served through several wars). I say Muslims because the nations from Iran to Saudi Arabia have historically demanded the expulsion of Jews from Israel and the destruction of their nation. Finally, the war has created a strident demand for the return of the prisoners captured by Hamas.
Netanyahu himself is a divided politician. He has been in power for many years and along the way been tempted by the lures of corruption. He has been tried as many times as Trump and by using many of the same tactics remained in power. He has paid a price for this success by having allied himself with the far right. Whatever he may personally believe about the Palestinian situation, he is politically driven to wage a vigorous war that eradicates Hamas. Since that involves a total war, he is obliged to bomb civilians, which creates the international condemnation I discussed earlier.
From the perspective of Hamas with their reliance on asymmetrical warfare, why should they change? Their hope for victory is to erode the political will of the Israelis. Dragging the war on forever; allowing thousands of civilians to be massacred, are prices they are willing to pay. This is not a new idea. During Viet Nam, SecDef McNamara, always the account, believed that killing enough VC solders would cause Ho Chi Minh to stop the war. Below is a photo of what that meant.[1]
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Clearly losses such as these did not stop Ho Chi Minh from stopping the war. It was not until President Nixon bombarded North Viet Nam, and particularly Hanoi, did peace talks start. This bombardment threatened the existence of the Noth Viet Nam. Likewise, 30,000 deaths have not caused Hamas to sue for peace. Rather, they are playing gruesome images of these deaths for political advantage. If they can survive by doing so, why change?
Netanyahu has chosen the hard warfare line, at least to meet the demands of his supporters. However, to survive the demands of their opponents, he must bring his war to a swift and conclusive war. To delay invites the same conclusion that ended US involvement in Viet Nam: withdrawal and defeat. Trump’s remark is a sang froid recognition of this fact. He knows this; Netanyahu knows this, and Hamas knows this. Why change? If President Biden is to succeed in creating change, he must show how it is in everyone’s best interest to do so. That’ll be a hard task. Anyone got any ideas?
[1] https://search.aol.com/aol/image;_ylt=AwrEr6d.fehlUxAgGyFjCWVH;_ylu=c2VjA3NlYXJjaARzbGsDYnV0dG9u;_ylc=X1MDMTE5NzgwMzg3NQRfcgMyBGZyA3NiX3RvcARmcjIDc2ItdG9wBGdwcmlkA2h4eGptQVdoUUdXZWttODlONWhTZUEEbl9yc2x0AzAEbl9zdWdnAzAEb3JpZ2luA3NlYXJjaC5hb2wuY29tBHBvcwMwBHBxc3RyAwRwcXN0cmwDMARxc3RybAMzMgRxdWVyeQNwaG90byUyMG9mJTIwZGVhZCUyMFZpZXRjb25nJTIwc29sZGllcnMlMjAEdF9zdG1wAzE3MDk3MzU0MTA-?p=photo+of+dead+Vietcong+soldiers+&v_t=sb_top&s_it=sb_top&ei=UTF-8&x=wrt&s_qt=&fr2=sb-top#id=92&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.gettyimages.com%2Fphotos%2Fwar-and-conflict-the-vietnam-war-pic-january-1965-tay-ninh-south-the-picture-id80751644%3Fs%3D612x612&action=click. 6 March 6, 2024.