Israel Is Remaking the Map

By Abe Greenwald

It’s becoming clear that Israel is in the process of creating a new world. In the pre–October 7 world, legitimate governments let terrorists kill a little, then hide a little, negotiate a little, and kill a little more. And Israel was expected to play along. In the world being born, Israel kills terrorists, wherever they are and at whatever point in their cycle. This is to be a world of greater moral coherence, swifter justice, and more enduring security.  

In short, it’s a saner, more civilized world. Which means the unstable populations of the West can’t bear to watch it take shape. Too bad. 

You can wrap yourself in a keffiyeh and chant Hamas slogans from freshman year until you’re eligible for Social Security. But Hamas, that entity that Israel supposedly couldn’t destroy, is all but destroyed. Hezbollah is on its way out, the Houthis are under attack, Iran is under rubble, Assad’s Syria is history, and Qatar is out of the terrorist-resort business. 

You can board flotillas, declare phantom states, boycott companies, publish blood libels and propaganda images, blackball artists, re-litigate the entire history of the 20th century, and even attack Jews on the street. But none of it will stop the proud men and women of Israel from ridding the world of your terrorist heroes. None of it will defeat the Jews or extinguish the enduring flame of Zionism. 

And if you couldn’t accept the long-established fact of a Jewish state, you’re really going to hate what comes next. Instead of Israel being “erased from the map,” as Iran’s leaders have long promised, Israel is redrawing the map and erasing its enemies as it goes along. It’s toppling the Iranian imperium, reestablishing Lebanese sovereignty, laying the ground for a potentially stable Gaza, ensuring the Druze’s place in Syria, and more. 

I could note here that, in taking out its enemies, Israel is also taking out enemies of the United States. But that’s an argument in defense of Israel’s actions, and I no longer feel compelled to defend Israel for anything it’s done since October 7, 2023. If you find yourself defending the very idea of Israel’s survival, you’re wasting precious breath on a weak mind or a wicked heart. The first cannot be made to understand righteous force, and the second understands but abhors it. You’re having an argument that doesn’t matter.

The only argument that matters—the only one that ever mattered—is the one Israel is making in the skies and on the battlefield. Not because “might makes right,” but because eliminating terrorist organizations and terror sponsors is a win for decency and humanity, no matter what jihad-supporters have to say about it. Israel was morally in the right from the start of this war, whether or not it proved to be mighty as well. Thank God, it did. 

So I’m not arguing; I’m praising. I’m praising Israel for its strength and clarity, and for its steadfast vision of a world that refuses to accept terrorists as anything but targets in a gun scope. 

Abe Greenwald is the executive editor of COMMENTARY.