Cal Thomas: Learning from history

MYRNA BRUIN, HOST: Today is Thursday, October 3. Good morning! This is The world and everything in it from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Then WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says that if Israel wants to attack Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, they need a clear path to victory. And the West must give them the space to achieve this.

CAL THOMAS: It was 1982. I was in Israel when the IDF crossed the northern border to eradicate terrorist sanctuaries in southern Lebanon. Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s government called it ‘Operation Peace for Galilee’. The deputy press officer invited me to accompany him to Lebanon.

We went via Tire and Sidon to the outskirts of Beirut. I saw weapons supplied by the Eastern European communist bloc piled up in parking garages, schools, hospitals and other civilian locations. Nothing has changed since then. The terrorists are called by different names, but have the same goal. They want Israel to bomb these supplies, hoping that civilians will be killed, so that Israel will be blamed for “targeting civilians.”

Forty-two years ago, Lebanese citizens cheered on the IDF and offered free coffee and Lebanese flags to the troops, even to me. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is right to ignore President Biden’s pleas for a ceasefire and a “diplomatic solution.” He’s heard that before and it only allowed Israel’s enemies to regroup for a future attack.

As former Israeli diplomat Yoram Ettinger writes in his newsletter, Israel must fight Hezbollah because it is the world’s second-largest exporter of “anti-American terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering – stretching from the Middle East to the American continent.” He goes on to say that Hezbollah is a representative of the Iranian ayatollahs, who have not only carried out terrorist attacks on US installations in the Middle East and beyond, but also collaborate with drug cartels from Latin and South America – by training terrorists on the way to the United States. US southern border…

So it is not only in Israel’s interest to crush Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, it is also in the interest of the United States, something too many governments have ignored. Instead of supporting Israel’s right to victory over its enemies, these governments, including the current one, continue to cling to the false belief that terrorists can be appeased by giving them what they want. What they want – and openly say they want – is the eradication of the Jewish state, after which they will come after us, and as Ettinger notes, they are already on their way.

In 2006, the UN adopted Resolution 1701. Its purpose was to end the war between Israel and the terrorists in Lebanon, who were then and now in control of that country. As the Associated Press reported 18 years ago, under Resolution 1701, “Israeli forces would withdraw completely, while the Lebanese army would be the exclusive armed presence south of Lebanon’s Litani River.” The goal was to lead to long-term safety, but that didn’t happen. As with so many other issues in the region, the resolution ultimately became hollow. Lebanon was once known as the ‘Switzerland of the Middle East’. Now it is ravaged by war and terrorism, fueled by Islamic fanaticism.

In war, victory must be the only goal, so that the war is not prolonged and new ones begin. It is worth noting two of the greatest victory quotes of two World War II leaders. In 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt said that the war against Germany and Japan would not end until – in his words – “total victory” had been achieved. The other leader is Winston Churchill. In his inaugural speech, after becoming Britain’s war leader, he said: “Victory at all costs, victory despite all terror, victory however long and difficult the road may be.”

That now seems to be Prime Minister Netanyahu’s goal. It is the right choice for Israel, the US and the West.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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