Israel’s war against Hezbollah was as inevitable as it was avoidable. Shaken by an unending war in Afghanistan and its concomitant withdrawal, the failure of which will live in eternal infamy, our political leaders over the last two decades came to favor diplomats promising to de-fund, disarm, and contain terror groups. As the world now witnesses the brutal outcome of these choices, it is clear the only path to decisive victory over terror is force.
Consider Lebanon. In terms of undermining terror, our leaders barely tried to do so. The diplomatic tradecraft they relied upon failed so spectacularly that Hezbollah hollowed out whole regions of northern Israel with weapons imported under the noses of willfully blind U.N. peacekeepers. This led directly to both significant bloodshed and entire portions of Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon being turned to rubble once again.
In contrast to that still-favored approach, Israel is decisively confronting and eliminating terror threats. The IDF has done so in remarkable fashion by killing Hezbollah’s leaders, destroying its infrastructure, and choking off its access to money and weapons from Iran. As a result, both Jerusalem’s and Beirut’s sovereignty is likely to be restored. The Holy Land and the Land of the Cedars stand a real chance of a brighter future – unless the diplomats stop it first.
It is critically important for the U.S. to learn from its past mistakes. The current war directly results from decisions made by the Bush administration in 2006 and the Obama administration in 2015. In both cases, the Presidents failed to accept that the only way to end a war in the Middle East is to win it.
In 2006, President George W. Bush forced a premature U.N.-mandated cease-fire to a war Hezbollah provoked by kidnapping (and killing) Israeli soldiers and waged against civilians with Iranian-made rockets, missiles, and mortars. The U.S.-backed Security Council resolution promised that after Israel withdrew, Hezbollah would be disarmed in southern Lebanon, and the only armed presence in the region would be the Lebanese Armed Forces and U.N. peacekeepers.
To no one’s surprise, Israel complied, Hezbollah did not, and the U.S. moved on.
In 2015, President Barack Obama compounded this mistaken effort of renting the veneer of stability in the Middle East by supercharging Iran’s capacity to fund terror proxies through its disastrous nuclear deal. Tens of billions of dollars flowed into Tehran, which in turn funneled hundreds of millions of dollars, and eventually, more advanced weaponry it could now afford to develop, to Hezbollah.
Today, Washington’s anti-Israel left and neo-isolationist right have reached the same misguided conclusion that a stalemate would best serve U.S. interests. President Joe Biden and the nominees to succeed him in office must ignore these siren songs lest they continue to make the U.S. complicit in allowing Hezbollah to rebuild, rearm, and reestablish its reign of terror as a result.
Continuing to handcuff Israel, be it through leaks to the press, withholding military aid, or attempting to impose a ceasefire, only guarantees a longer and more lethal conflict. Allowing Hezbollah’s continued existence as an organized, strategically relevant military organization will inevitably lead to a greater loss of life in Lebanon and Israel while weakening the U.S. and strengthening Iran. Pursuing such an outcome and glorifying the same is as cowardly as it is foolish. Indeed, it is a recipe for achievement that only a Nobel committee could love.
Better to have the temerity to testify that the only conclusion to this war, in the best shared interests of Israel, the U.S., Europeans and Lebanon, is total victory.
Israel’s war with Hezbollah is necessary to prevent the next generation from an exponentially greater conflagration. American leaders from both sides of the aisle should express full-throated support for Israel while admiring its stunning success. As Israel has been more successful fighting terror in the past two months than the U.S. has been in two decades, this is the only posture worthy of serious consideration.
Let us stand boldly with our stalwart ally as she does what no other country has had the want or will to do in the war on terror: win.
Sandra Hagee Parker is the Chairwoman of the Christians United for Israel Action Fund.
