Since the brutal\u00a0Oct. 7\u00a0Hamas\u00a0attacks in 2023,\u00a0Israel\u00a0has won a series of remarkable tactical victories against its enemies. If it continues to foreclose any pathway to peace with the Palestinians, though, it\u2019s going to find itself without friends.<\/p>\n
Israeli forces adopted an aggressive new posture after\u00a0Oct. 7, aiming to eliminate threats they had previously sought to contain. Their assaults wiped out the top leadership of\u00a0Hamas,\u00a0Hezbollah\u00a0and\u00a0Iran, and contributed to the fall of Syrian dictator\u00a0Bashar al-Assad. In waves of strikes last June and this spring, the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0and\u00a0Israel\u00a0buried Iranian nuclear facilities in rubble; destroyed hundreds of ballistic missiles and launchers; sunk most of the regular Iranian navy; and gravely damaged key industrial assets.\u00a0Israel\u00a0has seized swaths of\u00a0Gaza,\u00a0Syria\u00a0and southern\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0as buffer zones against future attacks.<\/p>\n
Proponents claim this strategy has left\u00a0Israel\u00a0stronger than ever. The Jewish state has shown the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0how capable an ally it is, sharing intelligence and fighting alongside the world\u2019s most powerful military. Persian Gulf nations should now see that they\u2019re better off partnering with the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0and\u00a0Israel\u00a0than trying to placate the\u00a0Islamic Republic. Even some Iranian civilians might appreciate that their erstwhile enemy took on regime forces that only weeks earlier had slaughtered thousands of peaceful protesters.<\/p>\n
Yet all these \u201cwins\u201d risk adding up to strategic defeat.\u00a0Hamas\u00a0remains entrenched in\u00a0Gaza. An extended occupation in\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0isn\u2019t likely to turn out better than previous quagmires. Decapitation strikes appear to have brought a more hard-line regime to power in\u00a0Tehran, still in possession of most of its missile arsenal and almost 1,000 pounds of near-weapons-grade uranium.<\/p>\n
Most important, Israeli leaders haven\u2019t translated tactical victories into diplomatic agreements that would preserve the country\u2019s long-term security. To the contrary, far-right ministers have infuriated Arab governments with their dismissive attitude \u2014 at best \u2014 to Palestinian civilian deaths and suffering in\u00a0Gaza. And they\u2019ve accelerated efforts to expand control over territory that Palestinians envision as the heart of a future state.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister\u00a0Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s\u00a0government has approved new housing units in the\u00a0West Bank\u00a0at a furious pace and fast-tracked development of a particularly controversial corridor that would divide Palestinian-controlled areas in two. Since last May, the government has withheld customs and tax revenue owed to the\u00a0Palestinian Authority, crimping its ability to pay salaries and maintain public services. Meanwhile, Israeli security forces have done little to restrain Jewish extremists who have assaulted Palestinians, more than 1,000 of whom have been killed since 2023.<\/p>\n
Rising impunity has deeply angered European leaders, who recently debated suspending their association agreement with\u00a0Israel, and upended hopes of normalization with\u00a0Saudi Arabia. Shockingly, as many Americans now sympathize with the Palestinians as they do\u00a0Israel\u00a0\u2014 a divide that yawns even wider among\u00a0Democrats\u00a0and younger voters.<\/p>\n
Losing American support would be devastating to Israeli security, far outweighing any temporary gains. Although Netanyahu\u2019s government is unlikely to shift course before elections due this fall, the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0should make clear that its creeping annexation of the\u00a0West Bank\u00a0is both shortsighted and unacceptable. Whichever government comes to power next ought to enforce the law equally, detaining and prosecuting settlers and soldiers suspected of attacks against Palestinians (including Palestinian Americans). It should also begin to restore the flow of funds to the\u00a0Palestinian Authority, halt the expansion of settlements and seizures of Palestinian land, and strive for more durable rapprochements with\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0and\u00a0Syria.<\/p>\n
If\u00a0Israel\u00a0wants to remain both Jewish and democratic, it can\u2019t continue along this path. Endless war is taking a dangerous toll on its military and economy, while its approach to the Palestinians erodes its moral and diplomatic standing. It\u2019s time the country\u2019s leaders put more thought into making peace.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Bloomberg Opinion<\/p>\n
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online<\/a> or check out our guidelines<\/a> for how to submit by email or mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since the brutal\u00a0Oct. 7\u00a0Hamas\u00a0attacks in 2023,\u00a0Israel\u00a0has won a series of remarkable tactical victories against its enemies. If it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[9014,37,2440,649],"class_list":{"0":"post-111697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-editorials","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-opinion"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116567035324068855","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}