Why Israel is a doughty David among the Goliaths

It pays to be a little deaf sometimes. Ask Binyamin Netanyahu. Had he paid heed to all the doomsayers—especially in the western mainstream media and several in his own country—the events of the past week may never have happened. Hamas would have been back in the saddle recouping and regrouping, rendering infructuous the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) actions in Gaza to neutralise it, and Hezbollah and Iran would have continued to target Israel.

Today due to Israel’s current deafness, of the 24 battalions of Hamas’s Iran-funded and trained al-Qassam Brigades, 22 have been “dismantled” by IDF. Israel also claims it has killed “half” of Hamas’s military leaders, including 6 brigade commanders, 20 battalion and 150 company commanders, and over 17,000 Hamas members. That might explain the purported pressure from within Hamas for its leader, Yahya al-Sinwar, to accept a ceasefire deal.

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Now that Israel has turned its attention to Hezbollah, rather than just fending off its attacks from the north that began a day after Hamas’s October 7 foray, a similar outcome cannot be ruled out. Hezbollah is a far larger force, but Israel has killed off much of its senior military leadership too. The ground invasion of Lebanon that Israel began today, although far more complicated and dangerous than its operations in Gaza, shows its intention to see this through too.

As anyone who has ever lived in that region (as this writer has) would vouch, Israel has a near-mythical ability to pull off the unthinkable and keep all its unfriendly neighbours in a state of perpetual unease if not fear. Syria has a population of around 24 million, Lebanon has about 6 million, Jordan is 11.5 million, and Egypt is a whopping 117 million. And Iran, its most active enemy, has a population of 86 million. And Israel? Just 9 million.

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Hopelessly outnumbered and belaboured by a long history of hatred from the surrounding Arab majority, the fact that tiny Israel has been able to survive at all is testament to its fortitude and undeniable ability to snatch victory from the jaws of prophesied defeat. Israel’s wars with surrounding entities have been parsed differently by experts over the years, but that has not affected its self-confidence, nor its ability to do the unexpected when the situation demands.

The similarity with the Biblical shepherd boy David, facing not one but a network of Philistine Goliaths, is obvious. Yet in the weeks immediately after the horrific murder, rape and abduction of hundreds of people in Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza on October 7, 2023, that shocked nation was warned against any large-scale retaliation. Clearly the world’s “leaders”, especially those heading international organisations, did not understand the mind of Israel/ David.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, except for the relatively new conflict between Ukraine and Russia, few countries can claim to have the kind of huge implacable enemies right next door as Israel does. India has. There are two large countries on either side of India who are not—and can never really be—friendly. And smaller neighbours are buffeted by geopolitics to veer to one side and then the other. So India can really fathom Israel’s position very well.

Which is why India, while advocating peaceful solutions, cannot really decry Israel’s response to that most audacious and vicious attack on its people. Imagine if 3,000 terrorists had slipped into India—or indeed any nation—and slaughtered, raped and kidnapped hundreds of people. Can any self-respecting nation with a self-respecting leadership sit back and do nothing to decimate, disable and dismantle the source of the forces responsible for the outrage?

So it is not at all surprising that a week short of a year after the Hamas attack, Israel is still continuing its military actions in Gaza and finally stepping up its retaliation against Hezbollah and the Houthis who had butted into the Hamas imbroglio. Not listening to the (mostly foreign) voices advising ceasefire—therefore compromise—is a no-brainer as that would not even lead to the recovery of remaining hostages, much less guarantee peace.

Going after Hezbollah was particularly inevitable. Particularly if Hezbollah does indeed have an estimated stockpile of 120,000 to 200,000 short-range guided ballistic missiles, short & intermediate range unguided ballistic missiles, and short & long range unguided rockets, with which it can theoretically hit any place in Israel. Just like decimating Hamas was a given too. Anything less than brutal retaliation is seen by terrorist organisations as weakness.

The decks may be stacked against Israel, also theoretically, as western media and the experts they choose to quote are at pains to reiterate given the size and capabilities of its enemies, but that is precisely why backing down is not an option. Nor should the psychological victory of killing Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, who had plagued Israel for over 30 years, be downplayed. That Israeli assertion of ruthless intent will not be lost on its adversaries.

Setting off explosives embedded in Hezbollah’s deliberately low-tech pagers and then walkie-talkies was a similar quintessentially Israeli tactic to create panic in its opponents’ camp and make them wary about where the next attack will come from. That its networks had been thoroughly infiltrated was the larger message which probably disoriented Nasrallah and his cohort long enough for Israel to eliminate him within his own subterranean headquarters.

Israel’s chutzpah and psy-ops cannot be underestimated. Even as his troops storm into Hezbollah’s well-entrenched southern Lebanon positions on Monday, Netanyahu has been on air (talking in English not Hebrew) about a regime change in Iran—which he called Persia—that will ensure a lasting peace “between two ancient peoples”. Israel taking out Hezbollah’s top leadership and even Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran will not be lost on the Ayatollahs.

Formidably well-armed terror groups present a permanent danger. Cynical deal-making and manoeuvring among Israeli political players may well have led to such a pass as many allege, but dealing with the resultant situation demands primacy; blaming and shaming can and will come after its very existence is secured once again. Meanwhile, temporary deafness among the Israeli leadership is necessary as long as Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and Iran persist with their implacably inimical intentions.

The author is a freelance writer. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.