“If it’s right to pursue the objective of eliminating Hamas militarily and politically, then do it, and then present the world with the result”

Photo: AP Images

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hat has happened, to the surprise of a lot of people, is that the pro-Hamas publicity campaign in Europe and the United States has been much more effective than Israel’s own information supply. Pro-Hamas activists have taken advantage of some unexpected developments in American public opinion; people under 30, for example, are far less supportive of Israel than the rest of the population, because of what they picked up from their university professors, and for other reasons.

So part of the reason that Israel feels beleaguered is that contrary to what happened in most earlier Middle East conflicts involving Israel, the adversary has been able to dominate news coverage. It has been able to do so in part because of this change in perception — largely in the universities, possibly because of immigration from the Middle East — that Israel is the land of oppressors and the Palestinian people are oppressed.

Now, for Jewish people, this is an amazing transformation — going from being oppressed themselves to being called oppressors in historical record time. But it’s cold comfort when you look at what the implications are.

The real question for Israel is whether its government and people will continue to have the resolve that they had at the beginning to follow through with their declared objective, which is to eliminate Hamas’s military and political capabilities. Because if Israel fails to do that, it could be a fatal signal to its enemies in the region and around the world.

Part of the problem for Israel — and certainly an understandable one — is that the triggering barbarity of October 7 focused their efforts at explaining the military campaign against Hamas as if this were purely a Gaza-versus-Israel fight, which clearly it is not. And I think what Israel needs to do better, along with those who support Israel’s right to a legitimate self-defense, is to explain that this is not a Palestinian-Israel war, and it’s not an Arab-Israel war. This is an Iranian war against Israel, using terrorist proxies to try to meet Iran’s objectives.

Hamas has been armed and equipped, trained and financed by Iran for many years. So have the Houthi rebels in Yemen, as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Shia militia groups in Syria and Iraq. We know what Iran’s objectives are in the region — hegemony.

What the particular objectives of this exercise of the Iranian “ring of fire” strategy are, we don’t know, and they may not be going particularly well from Iran’s point of view. But until people look at this in the wider screen view, as an attack on Israel conducted by Iran on four different fronts, then the response in Gaza will not be seen and understood. If you can focus only on Gaza and ignore the larger picture, which Israel’s enemies have been able to do, it presents a very different understanding of what the conflict is about.

Biden’s separation from Israel in the last several months is because of the left wing of the Democratic Party. In a narrow election battle in November, if that wing of the Democratic Party stays home, Biden will lose. So he has modified his support for Israel to try to keep that group on side.

That doesn’t mean that Donald Trump is going to be any better. If you look at his recent statements, they haven’t been particularly favorable to Israel either. On this score, what Israel has to do is define the right of self-defense to preclude what I call a “terrorist veto,” which is what Hamas and its supporters in the United States are now exercising.

They’re saying, “Yeah, it’s true. Israel has a right of self-defense.” But if Hamas is successful in using the entire Gazan population as a human shield to prevent Israel from achieving its objectives, then it means that Israel doesn’t really have an effective right of self-defense. That’s the terrorist veto. The real barbarians here are the leaders of Hamas, not only for what they did on October 7, but for what they have done to the Palestinian people during the entire course of the war.

It’s a violation of the rules of armed conflict to use protected places for military activities. That’s what Hamas does. That’s why it has tunnels and facilities under hospitals and schools and mosques. And while those facts are well-known, and additional evidence has come out since October 7, that has not been effectively communicated.

Lastly, victory has an amazing effect on public opinion. And every time there’s a delay, every time there are negotiations over hostages, every time there is talk of a cease-fire, every time Israel slows down, they’re giving Israel’s adversaries — including some who think they are acting in Israel’s best interest but in reality are not — time to sow doubt in the US, in Europe, and maybe even in Israel.

If it’s right to pursue the objective of eliminating Hamas militarily and politically, then do it, and then present the world with the result. And if there is any doubt in Israel about this, they should consult what Winston Churchill said about England, in World War II, at the beginning when things were going badly. “Without victory,” the British leader said,  “there is no survival.”

John Bolton is the former US ambassador to the United Nations and the former national security advisor to President Trump. He has served in numerous federal government roles dating back to the Reagan administration.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1007)