Israel, bless it, has spent decades trying to defend itself with all the stoic restraint of a battered spouse attending a UN marriage counselling session. Unfortunately, October 7th smashed any lingering illusion that this defensive posture was sustainable — or sane.
Picture it: multiple fronts ablaze, Gaza in chaos, Hezbollah lobbing threats from the north, and the West Bank smouldering with unrest. This wasn’t a military surprise; it was the invoice for years of strategic wishful thinking finally coming due. Israel thought it could weather regional hatred by handing out economic incentives and hoping for the best. Instead, it got the deadliest pogrom since the Holocaust.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t just a military crisis — it’s a cultural chasm. Palestinian political life, from Gaza to Ramallah, is built on the fantasy of Israel’s nonexistence. That’s not a fringe opinion whispered in dark corners. It’s mainstream dogma, taught to toddlers, preached in mosques, and broadcast nightly. And it hasn’t been softened by improved living standards or international aid. If anything, it’s calcified. Hatred has become heritage.
Still, Israel kept believing — hoping that offering land, jobs, or heartfelt negotiations might melt away a century of genocidal indoctrination. What they got instead was a massacre that many Palestinians cheered as a national sport.
So yes, it’s time for a strategy overhaul. No more waiting around for rockets to land or fences to be breached. No more treating terrorism as a tragic surprise. The new playbook must be proactive, unapologetic, and, frankly, frightening to Israel’s enemies. Hamas’s infrastructure in Gaza? Flatten it. Hezbollah’s stash of Iranian rockets? Light them up. Iranian proxies elsewhere? Strike first, send a fruit basket later.
This isn’t bloodlust — it’s moral necessity. Self-defence isn’t a PR problem. It’s a duty. Telling Israel to hold fire while its citizens are being butchered is not diplomacy — it’s collaboration. Demands for “ceasefires” in this context are not calls for peace. They’re permission slips for terror.
And speaking of terror: Iran. Tehran’s clerical overlords aren’t merely regional mischief-makers. They are the ideological sugar daddies of this whole jihadist death cult. Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad — all funded and fuelled by the mullahs, who dream of exporting revolution and wiping Israel off the map. Relying on Washington’s mood swings to counter that threat is delusional. Israel must be prepared to act alone — early, decisively, and with overwhelming force.
But here's the rub: while Israel sharpens its sword, it must still guard its soul. It’s a liberal democracy in a region that regards pluralism as a design flaw. So the challenge is twin-headed — to be ruthless externally, while remaining a beacon of tolerance, rights, and debate internally. A Jewish state, yes — but also a modern democracy. A contradiction? Only if you’ve spent too much time on a Guardian comment thread.
To complicate matters, Western progressive circles — bless their slogans and fair-trade lattes — have decided that Hamas is somehow the underdog freedom fighter in this horror story. These are the same people who think "From the river to the sea" is just a catchy rhyme. They champion intersectionality but draw the line at Jewish survival.
As Mother of Hate so bluntly lays bare, this isn’t new. Anti-Zionism in posh clothes has always walked hand-in-hand with old-fashioned Jew-hate. And like all virulent ideologies, it spreads fast when left unchallenged — through campuses, Twitter feeds, and newsrooms that wouldn’t know a war crime from a war diary.
Israel’s continued existence isn’t a gift the world bestows — it’s a miracle it maintains. And it will do so, not through deference or delay, but by staying alert, aggressive, and morally unyielding.
Because when you live in a neighbourhood where your neighbours throw parties every time you bleed, you don’t leave the gate open. You build a wall, patrol it with drones, and keep your sword sharpened — always.