Israel's former prime minister Naftali Bennett rightly concludes that events in Gaza have turned his country into a "leper state." This brutal assessment comes only weeks after Israel had earned international admiration for its extraordinary campaign to downgrade Iran's military capabilities.
What caused so rapid a collapse in its standing? It resulted from the Government of Israel ignoring two key facts. The hour is late, but if it takes them into account and recalibrates, its rehabilitation can begin.
I. Israel's High Profile
First ignored key fact: Israel receives wildly, uniquely disproportionate global attention. Comparing it to its demographic peer countries of around 10 million residents makes this evident. Nearly everyone knows of Jerusalem and Benjamin Netanyahu; who can name the capital cities or prime ministers of Azerbaijan, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan, or Togo? Nearly everyone has an opinion on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict but who has informed views on Nagorno-Karabakh, the Free Papua Movement, the Sierra Leonean Civil War, Tajik-Kyrgyz border clashes, or the calls for Faure Gnassingbe to resign? Merely asking such questions establishes Israel's exceptionally high profile.
 Benjamin Netanyahu (L) is far better known than Faure Gnassingbe, even though Israel and Togo have similar-sized populations and Togo is 2½ times larger in area. |
Since its creation in 1948, this profile has generated extreme levels of both criticism and support for the Jewish state. On the negative side, I showed over forty years ago how intense media focus translates into Israel "being held to impossible moral standards." For outside observers, "Israel looms so large, and its enemies so small, that it is judged not in relation to them or other states but in relation to abstract ideals. The rest of the world is seen in the context of its time and place; Israel is viewed in isolation." In particular, "Israel's military actions are often judged without regard to the actions of its enemies." This analysis applies precisely to Gaza today.
That same prominence, to be sure, also brings benefits. In the aftermath of Oct. 7, for example, the U.S. Senate voted 100-0 to proclaim that it "stands ready to assist Israel," while Mike Johnson stated, as he became Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, that "The first bill I'm going to bring to this floor in a little while will be in support of our dear friend Israel." His bill, "Standing with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists," passed 412-10. Comparable atrocities against civilians in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, and Myanmar, it hardly needs pointing out, found no such comparable American support.
For better and worse, then, Israel lives in a fishbowl, contending with a mixture of outsized support and defamation. Savvy leaders work within these constraints. David Ben-Gurion accepted diplomatic plans he hated, counting on the Arab states to reject them in his stead. Yitzhak Rabin formed so strong a friendship with Bill Clinton that the U.S. president declared he "really loved the man." Foolish ones, like Menachem Begin barging into Lebanon, ignore this reality at their peril.
 In an act of friendship, Bill Clinton (L) adjusted Yitzhak Rabin's bow tie, as Rabin's assistant Eitan Haber watched on, at the White House, October 1995. |
II. Palestinians as Global Priority
The other fact Jerusalem overlooks concerns the particular cause of outrage at Israel (and, by extension, at all Jews). The outside world hardly cares about Israel's domestic issues – whether judicial reform, the price of cottage cheese, Haredi conscription, or the crime epidemic among its Muslim citizens. Likewise, it nearly ignores external state relations – whether Israel's relations with China or Egypt, its attack on Iran's nuclear infrastructure, or even its own possession of nuclear weapons. Global opinion focuses very narrowly and specifically on the status of the roughly three and a half million residents of the West Bank, Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem.
 The price of cottage cheese sparked large-scale protests in Israel in June 2011. |
Thus did masterful marketing transform the perceived victimization of a small and weak population into humanity's premier human rights issue, enjoying far more attention than the much larger and more harrowing conflicts in, say, Cameroon, Sudan, and Ethiopia.
This attitude toward Palestinians explains why Hamas engages in violence against Israel even when it knows it will lose the military contest; because it also knows that any fighting further enhances its global status. Academics tout their cause, students build encampments, apparatchiks send them money, and politicians celebrate their extremism. In sum, the more Hamas attacks Israelis, the more fury it generates against Israel.
Israel's Errors
These twin international obsessions – Jews as news, Palestinians as victims – impose the context of Jerusalem's dealing with Gazans. The horror of Oct. 7 offered Israel an opportunity to take advantage of favorable public opinion, such as that shown by Congressional votes, to destroy Hamas. A smart military operation with a clear end-game, taking international biases into account, could have done so.
Instead, twenty-two months of fighting revealed Jerusalem's string of errors. Leading figures spoke irresponsibly about exacting revenge, the military first lacked plans, then wrote them too hastily, only arbitrarily to alter them. Reviewing the conflict, Yoav Limor, an Israeli military analyst, finds that "Israel has lost its way in the Gaza war. It has no clear direction, and therefore no chance of achieving its two declared objectives: returning the hostages and defeating the terrorist organization Hamas."
Focused on internal power struggles and oblivious to the outside world's twin obsessions, Jerusalem barely noted the widely-publicized scenes of humiliation and hunger in Gaza that so soured foreign opinions. Pressure from nearly all sides compelled it eventually to dispatch trucks with supplies but these hardly registered, as reports hostile to Israel continued to dominate. For a flavor of the public relations disaster, consider some headlines from the Times of Israelnewsletter dated Aug. 9:
- In major shift, Germany suspends arms exports to Israel over Gaza City takeover plan
- Witkoff said set to meet Qatar PM on comprehensive deal amid scramble to stop Gaza takeover
- Some 20 Arab, Muslim countries slam Israel's Gaza takeover plans as 'dangerous escalation'
- Netanyahu's national security adviser opposed Gaza City takeover plan
- Thousands to rally as hostage mom calls for strike over Gaza plan that "sacrifices" captives
- World condemnations mount over Israeli plans to take Gaza City; UN Security Council to meet
- Israel is committing war crimes – and its legal heads remain silent
The final headline – a report on a letter to the prime minister from twenty Israeli international law professors – may be the most incriminating. When responsible Israelis bandy about charges of war crimes against their government, something has gone desperately awry.
Recent Israeli policies have led to unremitting bad news: failing poll numbers, arm shipments terminations, cultural and academic boycotts, "Palestine" winning new diplomatic support (Australia, France, others), traveling Israelis getting roughed up, and surging antisemitism. As a small country with existential enemies, Israel cannot afford a collapse in foreign support. A disaster of historic proportions may be underway, one that damages Israel and Jews for years, perhaps decades, hence.
The Solution: Victory Delayed
As the author of a book titled Israel Victory (2024), I thrilled when Israel's prime minister reiterated hundreds of times after Oct. 7 his goal versus Hamas: "absolute victory," "clear victory," "complete victory," "decisive victory," "full victory," and "total victory." In similar spirit, I opposed Israeli negotiations with Hamas for its hostages, urging instead a single-minded focus on that organization's destruction.
 Netanyahu brought a "Total Victory" baseball cap to his meeting with Donald Trump in July 2024. |
But now, I acknowledge, the pursuit of instant victory has failed. It has continued too long, wrought too much devastation, and brought crisis upon Israel. True, Hamas militarily is but a shadow of its former self and the Arab League has condemned it, yet it continues to dominate Gaza's population and retains the ability to strike from the shadows. Continued warfare will not likely change this situation but only further impoverish and torment civilians, with the looming possibility of a humanitarian breakdown. Plus, a full Israeli takeover of the Gaza Strip would entail a huge economic burden.
With a heavy heart, therefore, I advocate delaying victory. If Israel's post-Oct. 7 campaign in Gaza began with the goal of eradicating Hamas, it has become a mission to salvage its own reputation. Translated into policy, this means Israel negotiates to secure the release of all hostages; it sponsors a new Gazan-staffed police force and administration that defies Hamas to collect taxes, provide services, and enforce the law; and Israel prepares for Hamas' next act of aggression, which will newly justify its crushing the jihadists.
Israel must defer Hamas' eradication to work first on its rehabilitation. But Hamas has not won, only survived, threatened with future destruction. Israel Victory is delayed, not abandoned. First redemption, then victory.
Daniel Pipes (DanielPipes.org, @DanielPipes), founder of the Middle East Forum, is author of Israel Victory: How Zionists Win Acceptance and Palestinians Get Liberated (Wicked Son).
