How Moral Relativism Has Led to the Demonization of Israel

Richard Kemp, the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, argues that the decline of traditional morality has undermined the West in its war on terror and contributed to the vilification of Israel:

Throughout most of the West, certainly in Europe, Judeo-Christian principles, honesty, family values, respect for the state, honor, and loyalty have all been eroded, often beyond recognition. Negative values, such as the acceptance of betrayal, duplicity, and deceit, have flourished. Defining values including patriotism and religious faith have been undermined. . . .

It is impossible to avoid a connection between the shift in public opinion on Israel and the change in Western morality. . . . War is no longer a matter of the good guy fighting the bad with the good expected to win. Political correctness encourages individuals to say what they think is seen as acceptable and will not offend the majority rather than what they actually believe. . . . The destruction of defining values mean that people will now accept physical acts that would before have been utterly abhorrent to them. . . .

The target is Western values themselves, most often represented by the United States, the most powerful country in the world. But Israel has increasingly become a proxy for the United States.

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More about: Israel & Zionism, Morality, Relativism, War on Terror, Western civilization

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

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More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF