YONATAN HAMBOURGER/TZALI REICHER: The war needs a real resolution

Last Sunday, more than 120 million people tuned in to watch a captivating drama play out in a Las Vegas football stadium. Two teams, coming off a grueling six-month season to make this final stage, duked it out in Super Bowl LVIII for the right to be called victors, in a heart-stopping contest that wasn’t decided until the very last play. Ultimately, the team that embraced lessons from their past seasons, both winning and losing, and played till the final whistle, won.

At the exact same time, on a real battlefield in Gaza, a fraction of CBS’s audience watched something even more consequential unfold. In a daring and brave operation, a team of Israel Defense Force special forces went into Rafah, the last remaining Hamas stronghold in Gaza, and rescued two Jewish hostages abducted on Oct. 7, right under the noses of the terrorists guarding them in captivity.

Rafah may sound familiar to some readers following the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. It’s the city where thousands of Hamas militants are suspected of being embedded in the civilian population that fled there after Israel began operating in Gaza following the Hamas massacre in October. In what can only be described as a capitulation to terrorism, several leading political figures have announced that Israel must not enter Rafah, amongst them Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying going into Rafah is not war, but “an outright attack on the innocent.”

Even President Biden, who until recently was supportive of Israel protecting itself from the genocidal terror organization on its borders, has come out much more forcefully against Israel’s announced moves into the city.

Even if Israel hadn’t demonstrated the need for an incursion into Rafah hours after Biden’s statement through the successful rescue of innocent Israeli hostages, there is no historical precedent for what many are asking Israel to do: stop a war they are clearly winning and have the moral high ground in, and just give it up for nothing in return.

Finishing the enemy that began a fight is crucial to ensuring they never do it again, and this is a principle that has proven true throughout our entire human history. Consider the absurdity it would have been if the Allies, having successfully repelled the Nazi invasion in World War II, halted just outside Berlin to negotiate a mutually agreeable end to the disaster Germany had unleashed on the world.

Israel ensuring total demilitarization and deradicalization of Gaza, the surrender of Hamas leaders and, the return of the innocent hostages, is the only way to guarantee the atrocities of Oct. 7 never happen again, and the region can move toward a productive and prosperous future. Exactly like Europe did following WWII.

War is tragic and war is brutal, and it always has been so. Were Hamas to surrender and give up the hostages, there would be no more loss of civilian life except at the hands of Hamas’ perpetual brutality against its own people. Israel cannot be expected to let Hamas get away and leave the war unfinished, rewarding them for employing tactics that include the horrific use of human shields and embedding terrorists in hospitals, schools, mosques, and civilian centers.

Not only is there nothing resembling “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing,” even John Kirby of the National Security Council in the White House said that he doubts anyone would do as good a job as Israel at protecting civilian lives, including the U.S.

Additionally, it’s not as if Israel is the only party affected by a potential surrender. The United States’ deterrent capabilities used to protect our interests in the Middle East have been degraded as terrorist-aligned forces backed by Iran, have attacked U.S. armed forces hundreds of times including the recent tragic deaths at the hands of Iranian proxies of Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, Staff Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, and Sgt. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, from our home state of Georgia.

Caving in to unreasonable demands for a unilateral surrender to organizations committed to the destruction of Israel and the U.S. simply because we’re tired of war is an untenable position that will only encourage our enemies to attack us again and again until we’re completely at their mercy. To regain our international credibility and authority, a muscular and peace-through-strength approach is needed, with a conclusive end to the war on Israel’s and the United States’ own righteous terms.

As the war between Israel and Hamas continues, the lessons from history echo loudly. It’s a lesson as old as Biblical times, when King Saul didn’t heed God’s warning to finish the war against Amalek and instead let the wicked enemy live, allowing them to return with a vengeance seeking to harm the Jewish people, time and time again, for generations.

Wars are not won through half-measures or hasty retreats, and they are not won by calculating domestic political considerations and pandering to a loud, minority base. Conflicts are won, and ended, by confronting and neutralizing threats decisively, and playing till the final whistle.