When you fight an army, you fight its people.
One of the biggest mistakes of modern warfare is the vain attempt to distinguish between an army and the citizens of the country hosting the same army. Israel has, for nearly three years, gone on about how we’re not fighting Gazans or the regular Iranian people or those good old Lebanese folks. No, our beef is with Hamas, the IRGC/mullah complex, and Hezbollah. The argument is that Hamas and Hezbollah are just local Sunni and Shia (respectively) extensions of Iran and not really representative of the locals. And as for the Iranians, the government killed tens of thousands of its own people, so that is proof that the regular folks are opposed to the regime and are thus nominal friends of Israel.
The problem with this approach, while intellectually correct, is that it gives an enormous advantage to the bad guys. Every time Israel warns some neighborhood or town in Gaza or Lebanon to evacuate, the terrorists move with the locals. Israel just lost five of its brave soldiers, with thirteen more wounded. How many fewer would have been killed or injured if Israel had just attacked without any warning whatsoever? Terrorists would have been watching the World Cup and would be dead instead of launching deadly drones at Israeli soldiers. Israel—and the US—must put it in their heads that all of Lebanon, Iran, and Gaza are combatants and enemies of the Jewish state. With this thinking in hand, they can attack as needed. They can destroy what needs to be destroyed. Germans and Japanese became quick friends of American soldiers AFTER the war. During the war, the only issue I ever saw raised was Kyoto, which General Marshall did not want bombed because it was a religious site. During the war, the Allies bombed as needed. While combat was ongoing, any town could be flattened (including in occupied countries like France) as required by military planning. JD Vance accused Israel of wanting to “kill its way out” of the Iran war. That’s really dumb. Israel wants victory, and its 10 million citizens were willing to run to or live in bomb shelters so that the IDF and the US could end the Iran threat. If you only fight the armed forces, you will lose. Proof runs from Korea to today. If you fight the whole body problem, then you might actually win. The locals will disassociate themselves with the terrorists in real time, as they will realize that their lives will be in danger when the bombs start falling.
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JD’s buddy, Tucker Carlson, sees a great opportunity to join his friend and pile on Israel. He said that Israeli Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was more bloodthirsty and worse than any Nazi, including Josef Goebbels. In a previous age, Ben-Gvir would have been considered normal; today, he is considered to be at the fringe of the Israeli right. What are some of the things that Ben-Gvir has done or said? He has been the driving force for having trials with death sentence penalties for those directly involved in the October 7, 2023, massacre. Most Israelis and normal Americans believe that the death penalty would be the right punishment for such evil. He has said that if Hezbollah attacks Israeli towns, then Israel should flatten buildings in the terror group’s stronghold in Beirut. Tucker has never heard of deterrence. Ben-Gvir was not suggesting attacking the Dahiyeh neighborhood for no reason; his suggestion was to make the response so painful that the offending party would stop. And you know something, it actually works. When Hezbollah attacked Israel, Israel bombed southern Beirut. Iran bombed northern Israel. Israel attacked Iran. Iran fired missiles generally at Israel. Israel responded. Donald Trump called a stop. When the US responded to the downing of the Apache helicopter, Iran bombed Gulf countries but did not fire a single missile at Israel. Deterrence works, and Ben-Gvir has never—to the best of my knowledge—suggested a de novo attack on anybody. He wants Israel to hit back hard so that the other side stops. Is that so “worse than Goebbels,” who oversaw the murder of tens of millions of people during World War II?
While Tucker was on his anti-Israel streak, he once again claimed that Israel was the real driving force behind the murder of Charlie Kirk. Forget about the assassin and his confession. Forget about his furry friend and his confession. Forget about the rifle. No, it was Charlie supposedly moving away from Israel (denied by all close to Charlie in his last days) that was the cause of his killing. Do you see why all of the money thrown at “fighting antisemitism” is a huge waste of dough? Here is a nearly open and shut case. There are videos of the killer before and after the attack. The rifle matches up; his having a transgender friend makes Charlie’s views the likely cause for the murder. Not for Tucker. When a person has Israel or Jews on the brain, all logic, facts, reason, and proof fly out the window. Tyler Robinson had a beef with the dynamic Kirk and used his shooting skills and knowledge of the campus to murder the young father in cold blood. But why not blame Israel? Why not throw more dirt on the Jews, now that the vice-president is doing it nightly?
The VP is going to Switzerland to negotiate with the Iranians. While some very astute business people note that an MOU, or Memorandum of Understanding, is not a final agreement, they miss a key point. Such a document describes the goals of final negotiations for BOTH sides. If there are $300 billion of Gulf money to be given to rebuild Iran, and such a point is in the MOU, then it means that Donald Trump and JD Vance are cool with that point. The issue is that all monies that the Iranians received from Obama and Biden went to nuclear and ballistic missile development, as well as funding of Hamas and Friends. One might be tempted to say that without the American cash infusion, the pogrom in southern Israel could not have been organized and funded. JD Vance said that he could not release the text of the MOU because of some sensitivities of the Pakistani and Qatari negotiators. I don’t give a fig about them; I want to know to what the US has committed itself. He said that the leaked versions were wrong, until the final version was publicized—and it was identical to the leaked versions. The Iran-favorable MOU has Witkoff’s fingerprints all over it. He seems more to be on the Qatari side than on our side. We bombed Iran with minimal loss of life and equipment. The US could end its oil production, electrical grid and transportation. They should be begging for a hyper pro-US MOU. Not when you have Witkoff and Vance on the scene.
We should minimally be grateful that JD was not around in World War II. He would have tried to negotiate with Hitler and Tojo, rather than tell them to surrender unconditionally. If he has a problem with Israel and Bibi, he can pick up the phone and iron things out. But for a guy who says that his go-to podcaster is neuron-free Theo Von, it is no surprise that he goes from show to interview to trash Israel and her prime minister. Bibi was wounded during the Sabena hijacking rescue; maybe former Marine JD Vance could show him some respect. He doesn’t have to agree with Israel or feign agreement. But if he does not want to strengthen Jew-haters like his friend or Iran, then he should keep his comments private and directed to Israel and not the media.
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