PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — To “pursue regional stability” is probably the most worrisome phrase uttered to date by any political leader, namely New York’s U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, in spite of Israel’s astonishing rout of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Senate majority leader was apparently as relieved as most supporters of Israel when the Israel Defense Forces killed Hassan Nasrallah and depleted the terrorist organization that he led for more than three decades.
Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in Washington, said it for most of us with his statement: “Hezbollah has the blood of hundreds of Americans on its hands. The world is safer and better off without Nasrallah’s terrorism and oppression…The United States and its partners must maintain efforts to ensure Israel’s security, deter and prevent Iranian-backed actors from expanding this conflict, and pursue regional stability.”
We can “pursue regional stability” all we want. Does anyone see that in the Middle East’s future? However weakened, Hezbollah along with Hamas in Gaza both continue to exist and are likely now attempting to regroup and find more creative ways to terrorize Israel as proxies for Iran. Though the ayatollahs in Iran are humiliated by these defeats, they are still empowered to devise a nuclear device, supply their proxies with more weapons and oppress their own people.
Israelis must cope with an unpredictable government that, despite its recent achievement, failed to prevent Oct. 7, increased tensions with West Bank Palestinians, and spurred harsh criticism of Israel worldwide. Can Israel survive until the next parliamentary elections, which are mandated by October 2026.
It is sad, scary and vexing that conditions may be doomed to remain about the same.
Israeli history is repeating itself…again and again since Oct. 7. A range of episodes mirrors events in Israel and Lebanon dating back almost a century.
Hebron, Aug. 24, 1929. — Hundreds of Arabs rampaged through the city and murdered 67 Jews. Some of their Arab neighbors sheltered other Jews so they would survive the attack. And 94 years later, 1,200 Israelis living in or visiting southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, were butchered by terrorists, most of whom were with Hamas. Another 250 were transported to Gaza as hostages.
Operation Moked, 7:14 a.m., June 5, 1967 — Most Israeli Air Force planes departed their air bases and destroyed 180 Egyptian fighter planes by 11:05 a.m. Israel claimed the total toll by sundown was 302 Egyptian, 20 Jordanian and 52 Syrian aircraft, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.
The previous day, then-IDF Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin told the pilots: “Remember: Your mission is one of life or death. If you succeed, we win the war. If you fail, God help us.”
Israel won the conflict, known as the Six-Day War. The Air Force demolished the Arab world’s most strategic advantage, leaving the troops free to ward off the Arab armies without contending with dominant threats from the air.
On Sept. 17, Hezbollah’s most strategic advantage, namely much of its communication system, was wiped out in the same instant when hundreds of pagers abruptly blew up throughout Lebanon, killing 12 and injuring more than 2,000 others as claimed by Lebanese health authorities, The New York Times reported. Many of the casualties were members of Hezbollah.
The next day, walkie-talkies owned by Hezbollah members exploded, causing the deaths of at least 20 people and injuring hundreds of others, according to the Times. Even Nasrallah conceded that Hezbollah “endured a severe and cruel blow.”
A “cruel blow?” Such as the “cruel blow” that drove 60,000 Israelis from their homes to avoid missile strikes launched from southern Lebanon? Or the “cruel blow” more than four decades ago when Hezbollah felled more than 200 American service persons?
Nasrallah, 64, gifted us a new Jewish holiday last Friday when Israel inflicted a fatal “cruel blow” upon him in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The present-day attacks mark the fourth time Israel engaged terrorist groups in Lebanon since 1978 and encountered onerous consequences when its troops fought there or occupied part of the land. It was a lose-lose situation, and it could happen again. Israeli officials wisely say they plan to limit their efforts to cross-border raids.
Israel also faces the prospect of releasing terrorists from prison to retrieve the remaining hostages held in Gaza. In 2011, they exchanged more than 1,000 prisoners for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who spent five years in captivity in Gaza. One of those inmates was Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the Oct. 7 raids and the current leader of Hamas.
With this partial history, how can anyone be optimistic that the violence, the threats, the hostility will ever end? Since the first Oct. 7 anniversary has arrived amid a life-and-death crisis, it is an opportune time to reflect on Israel’s future.
Seven-and-a-half million of our brethren live in Israel and must endure tension and vigilance every day. Even if Israeli troops are not engaged in combat or civilians are not rushing to bomb shelters, they must continuously wait for the other shoe to drop. That is no way to live.
Israelis must live with a rigid, obsessive ideology that demands the elimination of Israel. Muslim extremists are driving this mission, and they obviously manage it by brainwashing or terrorizing their own people. As Golda Meir suggested, it is impossible to reason with people who hold onto such insane attitudes. In fact, they seem to object to any non -Muslim state existing in the immediate Arab neighborhood and seek to transform the entire world so it is under Muslim control.
There are other important issues, but these can be worked out through diplomacy. They include treaties over land, security guarantees for Jews, Israeli policies relating to Palestinian life and the status of religious facilities. So long as fanatics prevail in their pursuit of killing or subjugating all Jews, Sen. Schumer’s intent to “pursue regional stability” will be subverted by the extremist pursuit of regional instability.
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Bruce S. Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist.