I agree with a recent editorial advice to "be right, make enemies." The problem is that being "right" is not the easier, expedient, monumentally failed policy of humanitarian ceasefires with a war-hungry enemy advocated by the editorial, by Vermont's congressional delegation and by many others. It is the very hard, enemy-making, "total war" strategy pursued by U.S. Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, among others, to create a much better world for all.
Slavery was abolished and American democracy saved from disintegration thanks, in part, to the "total war" strategy of Union Gen. William T. Sherman in the brutal destruction of Atlanta, other Confederate cities, and life-sustaining farmland.
Churchill and Roosevelt's horrific bombing of German cities and Japan's population centers, with no humanitarian ceasefires until total victory had been achieved, freed the world from the monstrous grip of the Nazis and ended Japan's murderous imperialism. Many decades of peace and friendships with former enemies followed. However, hundreds of thousands of children and civilian adults died or experienced unimaginable, heartrending suffering. That's war, and the three leaders named above faced much hatred for committing to it.
Israel's people would probably love to know Palestinian Arabs as friends, as demonstrated by the outpouring of love that greeted Egypt's leader, Anwar Sadat, upon Egypt's signing of a peace treaty with the Jewish state. However, Israelis also know that a risky ceasefire for humanitarian or other purposes at this point in the Hamas war would never achieve a lasting peace. Netanyahu, a smart and wised-up combat veteran like Churchill, must lead his nation to total victory over Hamas and create real peace and regional change for the benefit of all.
In a way, I hate myself for my seemingly cruel advocacy, and it is nothing but a tragedy to have to make that choice.
Andy Leader lives in North Middlesex.
