Hezbollah and the Iron Wall

When former (and future?) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks about terrorism, people listen. And for good reason, Netanyahu has fought Islamist extremists his entire life, from his days in the elite Israeli Sayeret Matkal commadno unit to his tenure as Prime Minister. He has written four books on the subject, two of which -Fighting Terrorism and Terrorism: How the West Can Win- I consider to be among the most important literature on the subject of fighting and defeating Islamofascism. And that’s a bold statement for two books that were written prior to September the 11th.

Speaking yesterday at the Hudson Institute, the MIT educated Netanyahu warned of another looming Israel-Hezbollah war, and laid out a simple strategy for victory.

To defeat “Militant Islam,” Mr. Netanyahu said, one “must deprive it of victory.” Every time you retreat, every time terrorists gain victory, that’s when they recruit. “Power attracts, weakness repeals,” he said. “Victory attracts, defeat repulses.”

Wise words that were ignored by Israel, who ended their sea and air blockade of Lebanon earlier today. There’s no doubt that Hezbollah considers their most recent war with Israel a victory, a point that Netanyahu has seized on:

Mr. Netanyahu told the gathering at the Four Seasons that Prime Minister Olmert’s Kadima party was built on the policy of unilateral withdrawals – a premise that is now dead. And so, went his implication, is the party and Mr. Olmert’s premiership. The policy of unilateral withdrawals started with the Oslo Accords. He spoke of how, from Israel’s founding until then, Israel’s military and her relations with her Arab neighbors had been based on Vladimir Jabotinsky’s concept of the “Iron Wall.”

This was a reference to a phrase used by the right of center Zionist, who held that only when the Arabs became convinced that they couldn’t destroy Israel – with every attack on Israel met by an “iron wall” – would peace follow. If Israel’s deterrence and response to attack was so strong the Arab’s found themselves banging themselves against an “Iron Wall,” they’d realize the futility of trying to destroy Israel and seek peace. The “Iron Wall” principle, said Mr. Netanyahu, led to peace with Egypt and Jordan. They attacked Israel, were soundly defeated, and sued for peace.

The same applied, in a way, to Arafat’s PLO after the first Intafada. The prolonged low-intensity conflict had all but bankrupted terror organization, forcing Arafat to the negotiating table.

Withdrawing from Gaza led to a kidnapped soldier and a new war, withdrawing from Lebanon in 2000 led to 2 kidnapped soliders and an even larger war. And the contention that the Oslo Accords made terrorism worse is more fact than theory.

Follow Sun Tzu, one of the most critical dimensions in warfare is the capacity to know and understand your enemy. Netanyahu understands terrorism and understands what can defeat terrorism. Bring back the Iron Wall.