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At the beginning of World War II, the United States faced two intransigent, militaristic and powerful enemies: the Nazi German government and imperialistic Japan.
The United States embarked on a war after Pearl Harbor, intended to utterly and completely destroy the enemy. Japan suffered two atomic bombs, killing and burning alive tens of thousands of people. The Japanese, notwithstanding their pride and kamikaze mentality, were not willing to see their entire country and its population destroyed. The Germans, faced a similar fate. By the end of the War, the allies were fire-bombing German cities without respite. The United States and Britain, in particular, were proud of the revenge which they took against the Germans for starting the War and bombing the City of London.
The United States even entered an alliance with another demon, Joseph Stalin, in Communist Russia, in order to completely annihilate the Nazi Regime in Germany. Neither Roosevelt nor Churchill trusted Stalin. They had good reason not to. Nevertheless, defeating Adolf Hitler and the Axis powers was the sole focused duty of the world democracies.
It is difficult for young people today to believe that the nations which they esteem as thoughtful, reasonable and fair-minded people, Germany and Japan, were once the mortal enemies of Western Civilization. How did the dramatic change occur? This is a question frequently asked in Israel, which is battling for its survival by attempting to defeat Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north. Both organizations publicly state that their agenda is to kill all Jews, and drive both Jews and Christians from the Middle East.
Israel, as a result of the catastrophe on October 7th in Southern Israel, has stated as its purpose the total and complete destruction of Hamas. With respect to Hezbollah in the North, Israel has been more tentative because of the arms, weaponry, and soldiers, financed by Iran. Taking on all terrors in the Middle East is just too much for Israel, a country half the size of the State of New Jersey.
Israel would like to have a partnership with the West to destroy the terrorists like ISIS, as well as other Islamic State partners, including both Hamas and Hezbollah. Russia is now reeling under the reality of a world dominated by the worst actors on the state of civilization.
A lesson learned from the United States in World War II is very much a "word to the wise, which should be sufficient."
The terrorist threat must be totally and completely defeated, crushed and annihilated. There can be no functioning Hamas or Hezbollah. There groups and others like ISIS and Boko Haram raise the real possibility that the world needs to be rid of Iran.
In Japan, the United States wrote a Constitution and kept a presence in the country until it set up a government that more than merely resembled a Democratic Republic. In Germany too, the occupation by the allies lasted long enough to reconstitute, reinvigorate and reinvent democracy.
Neither country, Japan or Germany, had much of a tolerant history in terms of their relationship with other peoples. The Japanese, in the Rape of Nanjing, murdered perhaps as many as 10 million Chinese. The Japanese turned Korean women into prostitutes for their Army. The Japanese were cruel and genocidal. The story of Germany's is well known. The war they began may have killed as many as 50 million people, in addition, of course, to the "final solution" focusing on the remaining Jewish people in Europe.
Neither the United States nor the allies hesitated for a moment to occupy Japan and Germany, and to reformulate institutions and recruit participants in those countries who were capable of having a meaningful relationship with Western democracies.
It makes no sense for the United States or any other country to hypocritically preach Israel that it should not invade Rafah, but rather should permit Hamas to exist and to release hundreds, maybe thousands, of murderers from Israeli prisons. Doing so would not only be insane and self-flagellistic, but it would also be suicidal. The United States, France, England, and the other Allied powers would never have dreamed of permitting either the Nazis or Imperial Japan to continue even on the tiniest island in the South Pacific.
Those who suggest that Israel should live with Hamas or Hezbollah, or somehow make peace with them, are asking Israel and the Jewish people to subject themselves to endless warfare. Imagine suggesting to 6.5 million people that they should permit 500 million Arabs well financed by Iran and other hateful regimes like Quatar, to do as they please. Who would do such a crazy thing, unless they were forced to do it?
If the Middle East is ever going to change for the better, Israel, with the support of Western powers, will need to conquer its enemies, destroy the terrorist groups, and build a democratic infrastructure based upon the needs and wishes of those within the Arab world who believe that peace is a better alternative to destruction.
Clifford A. Rieders is a board-certified trial advocate in Williamsport.