President Joe Biden had appropriately strong words about Hamas in his Oct. 10 address to the nation. He said we were confronted with “pure, unadulterated evil.” He described Hamas’s savage attack on civilians — men, women, children, and babies — as “an act of sheer evil.”
In one of the best speeches of his presidency, Biden described the horrors being perpetrated on people in Israel — including Americans, Germans, French, Thai, and other nationalities.
President Biden described: “Stomach-turning reports of — babies being killed. Entire families slain. Young people massacred while attending a musical festival to celebrate peace — to celebrate peace. Women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies…. Infants in their mothers’ arms, grandparents in wheelchairs, Holocaust survivors abducted and held hostage — hostages whom Hamas has now threatened to execute in violation of every code of human morality.”
Biden rightfully called these acts “abhorrent.” He charged that “Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed with no regard to who pays the price.”
Finally President Biden pledged “let there be no doubt: The United States has Israel’s back.”
It was a stirring, emotional, powerful speech.
Now comes the hard part.
Destroying Hamas, which I called for in a recent article, will be a painful, bloody, brutal business.
Regardless of current reports of Iran’s supposed surprise about the attack, Hamas and its Iranian sponsor have been planning for this war inside Gaza for years. They will apply the same ingenuity and ruthlessness to maximize Israeli casualties that they just displayed in their amazingly broad surprise offensive.
Hamas will also maneuver to maximize civilian casualties. Hamas wants children and women killed by Israeli bombs and wounded by Israeli soldiers. They will use their allies in the news media to begin a drumbeat that Israel is being too harsh.
There are already anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses and even in many of our major cities.
The horrors of 40 Israeli babies killed will shortly be erased by the wave of sympathy for the suffering of the Palestinian people.
Unfortunately, the atrocities and deliberate savagery of Hamas will become a distant memory to the political-media elite.
Mark my words: Just as they have in the past, the leftwing movement will return to referring to Hamas terrorists as “freedom fighters” and “defenders of their neighborhoods.”
Israel is likely already being told by leaders in the West that it must have “a proportionate response.”
What is a proportionate response to slaughtering babies, raping women, killing Holocaust survivors, and dragging bodies in the street to publicly spit on them? The anti-Israel propagandists will not have an answer. But they won’t need one.
Somehow the “pure, unadulterated evil” President Biden so clearly defined will fade from the dialogue. (The State Department is already hard at work to trap Israel into proportionate and appropriate responses).
This is a unique moment when evil can be destroyed.
However, destroying Hamas will require doing what is necessary — not what is reasonable. You win wars by overwhelming your enemy with asymmetric force — not meeting them with proportionate force.
What is necessary may include full military occupation of Gaza. This is a war, and it should be treated as an occupied warzone. This means fully securing the area and deploying the best surveillance and control apparatus Israel can muster in Gaza.
What is necessary may require Israel aggressively routing out Hamas in Gaza — including people who have been supporting and celebrating their evil and terror.
What is necessary will take months not days — and it must be methodically prosecuted.
Importantly, destroying Hamas would liberate the Palestinian people whose lives have been limited and impoverished by a corrupt terror dictatorship. The people of Gaza would have a dramatically better future if Hamas ceased to exist.
Every time someone tells you we have had enough violence, and that Israel should “be reasonable,” quote President Biden to them.
Pure, unadulterated evil must be destroyed — not negotiated with or offered compromise.
This is the real challenge — and the only road to safety in Israel and Gaza.
It will also signal to Hezbollah and Iran that more attacks will lead to similar treatment for their regimes.
The world will be much safer once civilization proves it has the courage and discipline to utterly destroy evil and defend and protect the innocent.
Only then can we return focus to improving diplomatic relations with and for our allies in the Middle East.
Right now, we must do what is necessary — not what is reasonable.