On Monday, Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth, visited Israel. There, he met with the families of hostages being held by Hamas, toured the sites of the October 7 massacre, and met with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog.
Musk sat through a video compiled from bodycam footage of Hamas terrorists that day and said it was horrifying to watch the joy of those terrorists as they committed their savage atrocities. He then held a press conference at which he spoke the plain truth about the situation on the ground, saying, “There’s no choice but to kill those who insist on murdering civilians. There’s no choice. They’re not going to change their mind. And then the second thing is to change the education, so that a new generation of murderers is not trained to be murderers. And then the third thing, which is also very important, is to try to build prosperity.”
.@elonmusk on Gaza:
1. You have to kill all those who murder civilians, since you can't change their mind
2. You have to change their education, so that next generation won't become murderers
3. You have to bring prosperity to thempic.twitter.com/y08eSY5JZ8
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) November 27, 2023
This is an excellent three-prong plan for destroying Hamas and other radical terrorist groups: Kill those who murder civilians, which means Hamas; overhaul the education system in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which are run by parties who hate Jews and seek the destruction of Israel; and bring economic prosperity. Only after those steps are fulfilled can there be talk of some sort of “peaceful settlement” of the conflict — because only at that point will there be partners willing to make peace.
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This happens to be the only strategy that has ever worked. Counterinsurgency strategies directed at hostile populations can only be successful over time if the most militant members are killed, the population is re-educated away from hatred, and economic prosperity becomes possible. And make no mistake: The population of Gaza and the West Bank is, indeed, wildly hostile. There is video from yesterday of the Gazan population harassing Red Cross vehicles carrying Israeli hostages.
Imagine the terror of the Israeli children inside these vehicles as Gazans jump on the car, bang the windows, and crowds jeer at them.
Hamas is terrorizing the hostage children to the last moment. pic.twitter.com/cfp1PHjnnt
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) November 27, 2023
T.E. Lawrence once compared making war on insurgents to “eating soup with a knife,” saying it is “messy and slow.” That, of course, is right.
The model for such counterinsurgency tactics is the British counterinsurgency against Communist revolutionaries in Malaya from 1948-1960. By the time that counterinsurgency began, British forces had been in the country for a century. According to historian Andrew Roberts and General David Petraeus in their new book, “Conflict,” the Malayan campaign was a mixture of stick and carrot: “Providing people with electricity, drinking water, schools, clinics and property rights proved a powerful disincentive for them to support Maoism, but the heady enticement of security had a dialectical partner: firm discipline for those who disobeyed.” The British leadership also knew that the strategy would take time: The general in charge of the operation said he would “shoot the bastard who says this Emergency is over.”
But the British did win.
Israel can secure its future too — but only if it takes the time and effort necessary to do so. This means ignoring the foolishness of those who want a quick ending to a long struggle.
The first step in that struggle is destroying Hamas, as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has made clear.
Hamas must be destroyed because the terrorist group cannot be reformed. Hamas apparently just transferred control of the entire Bibis family — including a four-year-old and a ten-month-old — to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another terrorist group. Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar apparently appeared personally to the hostages in the tunnels to show them his power. One hostage was forced to write a ridiculous letter about how Hamas had treated her daughter “like a queen” while in captivity.
Hamas is evil, full stop.
This is why early calls for Israel to stop its operations against Hamas aren’t just foolish — they’re dangerous. When Bernie Sanders jabbers about Israel’s cruelty toward civilians, he isn’t protecting civilians; he’s making their lives more dangerous, since, if he had his way, they would end up under Hamas’ tender protections.
Large swaths of the Democratic Party seem determined to prevent Israel from doing what they need to do to actually secure their future.
This is why Senator Chris Murphy is calling for conditions on aid to Israel — which would be fine, except that the conditions are things like “compliance with international law,” a vague definition that leaves open the possibility of withdrawing aid based on Israel’s current Gaza action. On Friday, President Biden said conditioning aid is a “worthwhile thought”; yesterday, National Security Advisor spokesperson John Kirby wouldn’t rule it out.
This is ridiculous.
It’s also foolish for people to treat the “two-state solution” as though that idiotic nostrum represents a true solution. It doesn’t. It, instead, holds out the hope that the more pressure that is applied to Israel — the more death brought to Israel’s citizenry by terrorists — the more Israel will concede to those terrorists. President Biden has been more stalwart than I would have expected, but his language on this matter is insipid. He tweeted, “A two-state solution is the only way to guarantee the long-term security of both the Israeli and the Palestinian people. To make sure Israelis and Palestinians alike live in equal measure of freedom and dignity, we will not give up on working towards that goal.”
A two-state solution is the only way to guarantee the long-term security of both the Israeli and the Palestinian people.
To make sure Israelis and Palestinians alike live in equal measure of freedom and dignity, we will not give up on working towards that goal.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 28, 2023
No.
The two-state solution may eventually become a possibility. But ironically, talking about it prematurely prevents that possibility from ever materializing — because every incentivization of terrorism increases terrorism, thus making such a solution absolutely impossible.
What needs to happen? Exactly what Musk says: finish Hamas; reeducate the kids away from Islamism; build up the economy.
But that would require moral clarity. And that, of course, is precisely what’s missing these days from a disconnected West.