No country in the world has ever been subjected to such systematic discrimination by the UN and slanderous propaganda by media outlets and NGOs as Israel https://www.frieden-freiheit-fairness.com/en/blog/attack-israels-legal-position-and-civilization. These activities have intensified since the start of the Gaza War on October 7, 2023. Although the legal historical status of the Jewish state is clear, as well as its initial position as a victim in the current Gaza War, politicians and journalists defending Israel are in a difficult position.
In the three previous Middle East wars in 1956, 1967, and 1973, Israel's armed forces were able to quickly and decisively defeat the numerically superior forces of several Arab states. In contrast, for over two years now, they have been unsuccessfully pursuing such a victory solely against the terrorist group Hamas. The significant deterioration of the situation for Israel is not due to a shift in the balance of military power, but rather to the way in which these forces are being managed.
When Israel achieved its resounding victory over four Arab states in just six days in 1967, American citizens wondered what made the Israeli military so much more successful than their own. After all, the American military was then embroiled in the frustrating Vietnam War (1955-1975).
Because America’s obviously counterproductive military strategy was not questioned and abandoned at that time, the 20-year disaster in Vietnam was followed by a large number of further mostly counterproductive military engagements of varying scales. These engagements were characterized by their frequently false labeling as defense of democracy and the arming of supposedly pro-Western fighters with the subsequent proliferation of these weapons into enemy hands. https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/15/from-benghazi-to-boko-haram/ Other overarching errors were a callous treatment of the civilian population that prevented solidarity and a tendency toward an absurd protraction of hostilities. The involvement of gross negligence and even deliberate delay was demonstrated by the example of the Afghan War, which could have been concluded victoriously after two months—instead of unsuccessfully after 20 years. https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/08/18/taliban-surrendered-2001
When this happened back in 2001, two notorious MIC militarists, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, held high-ranking government positions under George W. Bush. Their inciting activities in the lead-up to the wars in Afghanistan (2001-2021) and Iraq (2003-2011) confirmed Dwight D. Eisenhower’s warning against the dangerously growing influence of the MIC, the military- industrial complex, in his 1961 farewell address. However, since Eisenhower's warning was ignored by politicians and the media for decades, the further strengthening of this militaristic circle was inevitable. In tandem with an even more powerful financial sector, a clique of profiteers grew, interested in protracted wars, but by no means in lasting solutions.
The virus of self-destructive, protracted warfare reached Israel only after a considerable delay, following the US and its NATO partners—meanwhile in an even more ‘advanced’ version. This mutant is called the Dahiya Doctrine. Due to the typically incomplete reporting of the mainstream media, the Israeli civilian population is only most superficially informed about this counter-strategy. While people occasionally encounter the term Dahiya doctrine, they associate it simply with the motto that in the event of an attack, a disproportionately harsh retaliation is warranted. This alone would represent a proven strategy in the sense of Niccolò Machiavelli, according to whom an opponent is forced to surrender with short, hard, and decisive blows.
Against enemy combatants, this strategy works perfectly, as Israel proved in the wars of 1967 and 1973.
However, the vast majority of the Israeli population is unaware of the true and full implications of the Dahiya Doctrine.
According to this counter-strategy, first announced in 2008, civilian infrastructure and residential buildings are deliberately destroyed. The alleged aim is to emotionally incite the suffering civilian population against their leaders, which in the Gaza Strip means Hamas.
This supposed mechanism, however, contradicts psychological principles. On the contrary, the already prevalent effect of increased solidarity "rallying around the flag" during wartime is amplified by any enemy brutality. In this way, the Dahiya Doctrine has not triggered, but prevented Palestinian civilians from turning away from the Hamas leadership. Because this would have occurred as the terrorists regularly establish their fighting positions in residential areas and even schools and hospitals.
The full extent of the Dahiya Doctrine's counterproductive nature becomes clear when viewed as de facto support for media propaganda against Israel. The Israeli leadership provides the visual material for this incitement with the militarily largely senseless devastation of the Gaza Strip. The damage to buildings is of no concern to the Islamists, as international organizations will take care of the reconstruction. But the temporary uninhabitability of the territory brings them closer to a key geostrategic goal: the Islamization of the Western world through streams of uprooted refugees. This strategy works since the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), when European politicians lacking principles started to take in not only the actually persecuted Christians, but also Muslims.
In contrast, the accusations of genocide against Israel are absurd, since the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) announce attacks in advance. These warnings, however, allow well-informed Hamas fighters to seek safety even more readily than civilians. This makes a military victory against the terrorists almost impossible, while the unavoidable collateral civilian casualties lead to a loss of image for Israel and a global escalation of anti-Semitic sentiment. Thus, in the viewpoint of Hamas leaders, any civilian death is most welcome, as it fuels the propaganda war against Israel by serving the Palestinian victim role.
For Israel, and by way of collateral damage for all of liberal civilization, the Dahiya Doctrine has gigantic, self-destructive consequences:
- It perpetuates the global victimhood narrative of the Palestinians, thereby fueling global Islamist propaganda.
- It causes a dramatic loss of image for Israel and Judaism.
- It polarizes supporters and opponents of Israel in Western countries.
- It manipulates them in two equally suicidal directions – towards a crudely militaristic neoconservatism and towards a policy of self-abandonment in endless appeasement towards Islamists.
- It leads to rampant migration of Islamic refugees to Western countries – while Arab countries are continuously allowed to shirk their historical responsibility. This responsibility for the original refugees and their numerous descendants dates back to their attack on Israel in May 1948, and has been confirmed in every subsequent Middle East war.
Without a thorough course correction, these developments minimize the chances of survival for the authentic Zionist idea and for Israel itself. All Western nations and their concept of liberal society are likewise threatened by the underestimated collateral effects.
Course correction means questioning and replacing the ‘political correctness’ which currently dominates the West—that unspeakable pseudophilosophy which has given birth to and cultivated both coward appeasement and neoconservative militarism, which latter has escalated into the mindless and suicidal Dahiya doctrine.
A look at the broader political situation shows that there is no better time for this course correction than now. An American armada has arrived at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Military pressure can bring about negotiated solutions. It can also lead to a clean liberation of the Iranian nation from 47 years of Ayatollah dictatorship, avoiding civilian casualties and major battles.
However, if the lessons from 80 years of counterproductive British-American military interventions are not learned, a repetition and further escalation of these catastrophes is inevitable. https://www.frieden-freiheit-fairness.com/en/blog/excesses-militarism-social-suicide-and-human-sacrifice
In the event of a full-blown war, it would be impossible to keep the Strait of Hormuz open to civilian shipping, causing oil supplies and thus the economies of Europe and China in particular to drop dramatically. Despite the enormous unemployment figures, this would be the less severe consequence.
A major escalation threatens, especially if Israeli politicians fail to immediately identify the Dahiya Doctrine as a suicidal program and replace it with an ideology of liberating the opposing civilian population from its autocratic leadership. https://www.frieden-freiheit-fairness.en/blog/maduros-overthrow-crossroads-world-politics-short-version.
Without the utmost caution, the Gaza war, which continues to simmer on a lower flame could prove to be a dress rehearsal for something far worse in Iran and Israel. Caution must take into account the potential deployment of nuclear weapons by North Korea. The same applies to Turkey's real great-power perspective. https://timesca.com/how-central-asia-is-shifting-from-russia-towards-turkey/
Never before has Israel's leadership borne anything close to as much responsibility as it does now. A short quote from the Torah, the Old Testament, points to the correct path, which has nothing to do with MIC militarism, nothing to do with subservient appeasement, and nothing to do with the undemocratic power of money: Ephesians 5:11 “…and have no fellowship with the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them.