A Just War
By
Leonard Zwelling
In The New York Times on September 23, Michael Walzer, a Jewish author, makes the claim that “Pager Bombs Have No Place in a Just War.” Too many civilians were killed or maimed and many of these devices were not in the battlefield when they exploded.
I’m going to disagree and this is where the liberals and the others on the left just cannot seem to see the major issue. It’s a simple one. For the past 76 years, for the first time in 1800 years, the Jews of the world have had some place to go when the rest of the world does not want us. That place is Israel. In 1948, this was a sliver of land in what was once British Palestine. After 1967, it got a lot bigger although much of the land captured in that Six Day War has not been officially annexed by Israel. Nonetheless, Israel is the one and only home of the Jewish people.
From its birth, Israel has been at war with its neighbors. In the past those were real countries. Now it is Iranian proxies that have taken over other countries, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and other enemies in Iraq.
Much of the world wants the Israelis to somehow acquiesce to a cease fire in order to gain back the hostages taken on October 7. A peace treaty with Hezbollah would, in theory, allow the 60,000 or so Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel, outside the range of the rockets from southern Lebanon. Perhaps a truce with Hezbollah would lead to one with Hamas. I doubt it. Even if it did, Hamas would be right where it was on October 6 only with a decimated Gaza to rule.
Israel is seeing this a little differently.
To Israel, October 7, the Hezbollah rockets, and the Houthi reign of terror on ships in the surrounding waters remain existential threats that cannot be solved with a peace deal because they are not dealing with real countries. They are dealing with terrorist outlaws who are proxies for the real villain, Iran.
To end the killing, with pagers or with bullets, will require the defeat of the mullahs in Tehran. This fight between Israel and Iran seems almost inevitable as it is Iran that poses the real existential threat to Israel. And when that day comes, and it will, the United States is going to have to decide if it is really an ally of Israel or just blowing smoke. If Mr. Biden really wants to solve the Gaza War and the latest aggression on the Lebanese border with Israel he is going to have to deal with Iran.
Iran is getting closer and closer to having a nuclear weapon. When is the United States going to say that if gets any closer, it will pay a price or will Israel have to deal with that, too?
The putative Israeli aggression on Hezbollah through its exploding of communication devices is both just and brilliant.
Israel is in a “whatever it takes” situation. That the Americans cannot grasp this is most unfortunate. But now the members of Hezbollah can.
