The problem is something else

Netanyahu is not the problem. The problem is something else.

There is a misguided — and at times cowardly — tendency to concentrate all criticism of the war in Gaza on Benjamin Netanyahu. As if he were the primary cause of the tragedy. As if peace depended solely on his resignation. As if another Israeli leader — more palatable to international public opinion — could disarm with words those who treat war as a cult and death as a sacred mission.

It does not matter who holds the office of Prime Minister in Israel. What truly matters is who the State of Israel is up against. And Israel is facing enemies who do not recognize the legitimacy of its existence, nor the humanity of its citizens. Enemies who are not seeking a compromise, but erasure. What is at stake is not the internal politics of a democratic state, but the right of that state — the only one in the world with a Jewish identity — to continue existing between the river and the sea.

From Tehran to Gaza, from Sanaa to Beirut, Israel is surrounded by militias and regimes that repeatedly and openly express their desire to see it wiped off the map. Iran, through the Revolutionary Guard and by funding groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, injects billions of dollars every year into weapons, training, and propaganda to support this genocidal project. In 2023 and 2024, more than 15,000 rockets and drones were launched against Israel in under twelve months. Hezbollah alone, funded by Iran, receives over $700 million a year to maintain an arsenal that once held more than 150,000 missiles pointed at Israeli cities — until Israel retaliated with formidable intelligence.

On October 7, 2023, the world saw what it means to allow such hatred to flourish without a proportional response. In just one day, Hamas massacred around 1,200 Israeli civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. The attack was meticulously planned and brutally carried out, with rapes, beheadings, and kidnappings. The terrorists themselves recorded their actions using body-mounted cameras, as if showcasing trophies. Nothing that happened on that day was improvised. And nothing that happened was a reaction to Netanyahu.

Reducing the origin of the conflict to the figure of the Israeli Prime Minister is to ignore historical reality: Israel has been governed by leaders of every political persuasion — Labor, Likud, pacifists, generals, secular technocrats and religious conservatives. None were spared from the hatred of those who reject the very idea of a sovereign Jewish state. It was not Netanyahu who inspired the drafting of the Hamas Charter, which proclaims the destruction of Israel as a sacred objective. Nor was it he who armed Hezbollah with long-range missiles. Nor was it he who sent suicide bombers into cafés, buses, and synagogues.

What do slogans like “Never Again” and “Israel has the right to exist” actually mean, if they are emptied of content when put to the test? “Never Again” is not simply a mantra against forgetting the Holocaust — it is a promise that, when new threats arise, there will be a response. That today’s antisemites — like those of the past — will meet resistance, not appeasement. That they will be punished, not embraced.

“Israel has the right to exist” is not a conditional privilege depending on who occupies the Prime Minister’s seat. It is the assertion of a moral fact: the Jewish people have the right to live with sovereignty and security in their ancestral homeland. That right cannot be contingent on the mood of headlines or the approval of international NGOs.

If a democratic government determines that it must use lethal force to neutralize systematic terrorist threats, that is not an ideological choice — it is a moral duty. The use of force is not the problem. The problem is the existence of enemies who can only be stopped by force. No ceasefire agreement signed with Hamas will prevent the next massacre. No humanitarian aid will stop Hezbollah from digging tunnels and stockpiling weapons in schools and hospitals.

Yes, there is suffering in Gaza. But the suffering in Gaza is caused by Hamas itself, which turned civilians into shields, schools into rocket warehouses, and ambulances into combat transport. Those who grieve for the civilian victims — as if context didn’t matter — should remember that Israel sent alerts, messages, and evacuation instructions before every strike, often compromising military effectiveness and at the cost of 1,800 Israeli soldiers. Hamas, on the other hand, prevented civilians from fleeing and celebrated each of their deaths as propaganda ammunition.

Speaking of moderation in a war against terrorism is like asking a surgeon to be gentle when removing an invasive tumor. There is no virtue in sparing cancer. And there is no justice in demanding that Israel spare those who have vowed to destroy it.

Sacrificing Israeli lives to maintain an international image of “moderation” is not diplomacy — it is suicide. No country in the world would tolerate what Israel is expected to endure. No nation would accept daily rocket attacks, kidnappings, tunnels, ambushes, beheadings, and constant nuclear threats. No people should ever have to justify their own survival. Yet this is exactly what is asked of Israel — restraint, apology, and guilt.

Those who demand that Israel restrain itself in the face of its enemies are not asking for peace. They are asking the Jews to accept the fate that has pursued them for two thousand years. And that will not happen. Not anymore.