Instead of Impressing the Civilized World, Bibi Needs to Humiliate Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been channeling wartime Winston Churchill in his recent speeches.

“Until recently, many believed that the promise of progress of the 21st century would enable us to move beyond the barbaric horrors of the past towards a better and brilliant future,” he said in his latest address. “Many believed that we could go about our comfortable lives and that evil will simply pass us by. It will not.”

Like Churchill during World War II, Bibi has been sounding epic and historic:

“The horrors that Hamas perpetrated on October 7th remind us that we will not realize the promise of a better future unless we, the civilized world, are willing to fight the barbarians. Because the barbarians are willing to fight us. And their goal is clear: Shatter that promising future, destroy all that we cherish and usher in a world of fear and darkness.”

Bibi’s prose is grand and eloquent because he is appealing to the civilized world. But that has zero impact on this brutal enemy. If anything, Hamas loves that grandiose war-against-the-world stuff. It gives them a sense of nobility.

To help his side win, Bibi must engage in psychological warfare.

He needs to be more brutal, more primal, more personal.

He needs to attack, expose, humiliate.

Something, perhaps, like this:

“I have a direct message for the cowards of Hamas: You have the blood of your people on your hands.

“You are so afraid to face Israeli soldiers man to man, you have to hide behind your people.

“You have to hide under hospitals, schools, mosques and apartment buildings.

“You have to hide behind your women and children, knowing that if they are killed during the fighting, you will win the world’s sympathy.

“Because that is your fondest wish: To butcher 1400 Israelis and still win the world’s sympathy.

“From the very first day you launched your terror war against Israel, you have been a curse to your people.”

“That’s why you stopped so many of your people from evacuating.

“That’s why from the very first day you launched your terror war against Israel, you have been a curse to your people.

“You pretend to have noble goals; but your goals are only to destroy the tribes you hate while abandoning your own tribe.

“You have diverted humanitarian aid and funds to build a war machine– while leaving your people in misery.

“And where are your fearless leaders, Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal, while your people need them? They’re living it up in luxury hotels in the Gulf.

“Because you have abandoned your people, the blood of every Palestinian killed in every one of your attacks on Israel is forever on your hands.

“Now it’s time to let your people go free– while you fight like real men.

“Or are you afraid to fight like real men?”

This is not empty bluster. This is tactical humiliation.

The bottom line, Mr Netanyahu, is this: Israel is in ugly combat with barbarians who hide behind civilians. We don’t need to impress the world at this time with Churchillian speeches.

We need to attack and publicly humiliate cowards and strip them of all pretense of nobility.