Israel is at an inflection point in its war against Hamas and the axis of evil. After the atrocities of October 7, its vision right now is understandably narrow: dismantle Hamas and bring home the captives.
Yet Israel’s security conception has been passive and flawed, accepting absurd realities such as constant rocket fire from terrorists as matters of fact. It is clear that the new security paradigm must shift from defense to offense in relation to the Iranian threat afar, the Hezbollah threat in the North, and the Sunni terrorist threats in Gaza and Judea and Samaria. A new security buffer zone is vital on the Lebanese and Gazan borders, giving Israel a preemptive ability to strike.
But alone, that is not enough. To meet its challenges, Israel needs a new diplomatic strategy alongside its defense strategy. Israel needs a preemptive, offensive, diplomatic security buffer zone.
Israel has long practiced the principle of independence in its security and diplomacy. It has the capabilities and fortitude to continue on such a path. But this is not the right way forward. Israel needs to form a coalition, a military coalition, against the axis of evil. It is concerned for its autonomous capabilities to preemptively strike a nuclear Iran or get tangled up in foreign military commitments. These considerations have precluded Israel’s joining NATO or entering a defense treaty with the United States. The result is that in each bout against our enemies, Israel faces an uphill battle in recruiting foreign support.
President Richard Nixon’s operating principle was that “you pay the same price for doing something halfway as for doing it completely. So if you do something, you might as well do it completely. You don’t really have a choice to do it halfway.” When contemplating his response to the Israeli plight in the Yom Kippur War, this rule prompted him to go all the way and launch Operation Nickel Grass, sending the vital munitions Israel needed to turn the war around and defeat its enemies.
Israel must create a security umbrella, a united front for freedom and human rights
Israel must adopt the Nixon maxim regarding the conduct of its diplomacy in service of its security. Israel needs to create a security umbrella involving other nations with like-minded principles of freedom and human dignity. Its practice right now involves half measures. It is dependent on American support and defense aid. It constantly strives to gain legitimacy from its fellow Western powers. Yet if it were to preemptively strike, it would nonetheless consult its American allies.
Even America, the world superpower, fights its enemies in coalitions. While it knows its own might, it understands that teamwork is always better than going at it solo. Just like the West fought the Nazis, and it fought ISIS, Israel must recruit it to eventually fight Iran and Hezbollah, shoulder to shoulder. This is, truthfully, the battle of all Western freedom-seeking nations against tyranny and evil.
Instead of waiting for tragedy to strike and attempting to shape and influence the hostile world opinion, Israel needs to get its hands dirty and preemptively shape the world’s international institutions in its light. Under the failing leadership of Secretary-General António Guterres, the United Nations is falling on the wrong side of history in a sad repeat of the League of Nations' shortcomings.
Unable to clearly differentiate between right and wrong, between Israel’s moral right to self-defense and Hamas’s crimes against humanity, the UN is proving its ineptitude and the need for international reform.
Fortunately, there have been rays of light, with Western world leaders lining up behind Israel. Under President Biden’s heroic leadership, America was the first responder after October 7. Following his lead, the leaders of the UK, Germany, Italy, France, and other nations headed to Jerusalem to stand with Israel morally. The moral and diplomatic coalition must take the next step. Israel and the world need a military coalition against the axis of evil. In Jerusalem, French President Emmanuel Macron called for the anti-ISIS coalition to regroup against Hamas. The world now needs the anti-ISIS coalition, and it needs it against the entire axis of evil.
Israel did not join NATO for the reasons mentioned above. It has reportedly considered different forms of a defense pact with the United States to counter the Iranian threat. But the atrocities of October 7 must be a defining moment, a turning point in Israel’s deliberation and this chapter of world affairs; nations can no longer sit on the fence and ponder which side is right and which is wrong. October 7 was just the opening barrage of what is to inevitably be a prolonged war between those who stand for human life and those who cripple it.
Winston Churchill and the British nation fought Hitler alone while millions of Jews were burned alive in the Nazi gas chambers. The world stood on the sidelines for too long. The Grand Alliance came together and triumphed, but too little, too late. The time for hesitation has passed. Statesmanship requires definitive action that accounts for national interests along with the values that nations stand for. Statesmanship requires that the leaders who visited Israel to show moral solidarity now show clear military solidarity, in accordance with their national interests and our basic common human values of life and liberty.
Israel must no longer fight this cause alone, though it is certainly able and willing. Israel stands readily on the front lines, but this is a war of humanity against the perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Western powers can no longer blink or negotiate after the axis of evil exposed its true colors. Israel must capitalize on this crisis and lead the formation of an international, moral military coalition as a preemptive strike against its enemies of tomorrow. It is time for Israel to take an active role in reforming the world’s international treaties and institutions. The West must assert truth against evil, and by all means available. The weight of the world depends on it.
The writer, a current IDF reservist, served as an adviser to then-deputy prime minister and justice minister Gideon Sa’ar in Israel’s 36th government. He works at Meitar, a leading Israeli international law firm.