Knucklehead Row - Episode 5

“Israel Has Stark Choice: Declare Victory or Keep Fighting”

The Australian is my favourite newspaper. But seriously guys, that headline is one of the stupidest things I have read in a long time.

You don’t win victory by declaring victory. In what parallel universe do these people live?

You win victory by vanquishing your enemies so that they can never kill your people again.

Israel will be victorious when every last hostage is returned, when Hamas formally surrenders, and when there is a governing body in Gaza that is not a threat to the State of Israel.

You keep fighting until you are victorious.

The idea that you should quit fighting half way through a battle and simply “declare” yourself the winner doesn’t work on the football field, and it sure as hell doesn’t work on the battlefield.

How do people write this kind of stuff with a straight face?

When Israel finish what Hamas started, and then finish what Hezbollah started - there will be victory.

And yes, then there’s the small matter of Iran.

The fact is that Israel should not have to do this on its own.

And nor should Israel’s friends be pressuring them to declare a symbolic victory that everyone - not least of all, Israel’s enemies - will know to be a retreat.