American Duplicity=Contaiment=Defeat!
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wants a diplomatic outcome between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. The United States sees no advantage to them to have an Israeli military victory in Northern Lebanon, let alone the expulsion of Hezbollah from Beirut. As always, America compromises over military victory and containment over resolution. A policy that has seen the US defeated in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan and is now preparing to desert the Ukraine. It’s not a proud record for an economic and military giant. This is not the America of late 1941 to 1945, who, along with its British allies, defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. No containment to be found here, only blood and guts and a resolve to achieve total victory at all costs.
In the world of geopolitics, a turning point is upon us. The US has repeatedly shown that its promises have proven ineffective in the absence of active enforcement. Their pledge of partnership and undying friendship has been found wanting when it counts. Since Obama’s Presidency, the world has seen political and economic crises that can be traced to Western practices and imploding regional order, coupled with a sectarian bloodbath, terrorism, and wars that always end on terms short of victory.
These disastrous policies have questioned the viability of Pax Americana and its desire to maintain hegemony in today’s fractious world. Countries under American influence are not jumping ship yet, preparing the lifeboats should the need to use them arise.
With all of this in mind, Israel needs to question the Security commitments that have stood as bedrock assumptions as no longer serving the Jewish State’s self-interest. America’s much-loved containment fetish can only lead to Israel abandoning the Northern Jewish population centres, which would be equivalent to raising the white flag over Israel. America’s leadership is laced with unpredictable liability, no longer sure of itself. It teeters on the precipice of irrelevance.
The Jewish State must wrestle with these profound isolation difficulties amid a sea of enemies and fading friends. Israel’s preservation demands that the country look beyond its traditional allies and return to the doctrine of 1967: pre-emption and the total defeat of our enemies.
The fact that Hezbollah has established sovereignty over Lebanon, contiguous to Israel’s northern border, has presented Israel with one of two choices: surrender or fight. There is no in-between. Containment has led to October 7 in the south, and tolerating Lebanese and Syrian incursions into Israel in the North has displaced tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes, businesses and domesticity.
It’s time Israel stated very clearly to friend and foe alike. First of all, this country is a Jewish State, and Jews are proud that it is Jewish and they are Jewish. The Jewish nation has a set of commonly recognised goals and a sense of identity and direction, which is a prerequisite for survival.
We must make it crystal clear that we are not an extension of US foreign policy subject to American self-interest nor to American Geo-Political strategies that place Israelis in mortal danger to satisfy an obsession with containment in place of victory.
