David Brooks:
Well, first I want to appreciate Jonathan’s comments.
The history of Judaism is the history of hiding in homes while people come and kill — try to kill you and try to burn you down. And so that goes back to the exiles thousands of years ago. It goes back to the pogroms, when my ancestors left Central Europe. It goes back to the Holocaust.
And so the whole point of the state of Israel was, that would not happen again. You would not have young girls hiding under dead bodies, so she — they can live. And so it happened, and it touches something very deep in the Jewish consciousness.
And I understand why the Israelis are so outraged, up in arms, traumatized, whatever word you want to use, and why they want to be so aggressive at Hamas.
I have to say, one of the things Joe Biden can tell the Israelis, as a friend and as someone who’s offered unconditional love, is that, well, we had our 9/11, and we did not react intelligently. And so you have to think carefully about what you’re walking into.
I supported the war in Iraq. At that time, I saw five or six different ways it could benefit the United States or benefit the Iraqis, benefit the Middle East. I confess, I look at this thing in Gaza, I don’t really see a positive exit strategy.
I see urban warfare, like, Mosul times 10. I don’t — is Israel really going to stay there forever? You can’t withdraw once you have destroyed Hamas. You have to stay there. How is that going to work in this world?
And so I’m hoping the Biden administration will say, do what you need to do to Hamas, but let’s not overreach here. And let’s remember that the reason, one of the reasons Hamas did this was to prevent Saudi-Israeli alliance. So, let’s put that first. Let’s have a revenge by having a Saudi-Israeli alliance and really hit Hamas where they live.