Two years and one day after Hamas’s barbaric sneak attack, Donald Trump announced "Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan." Hamas will return the remaining hostages and the bodies of the other murdered victims, and if the peace plan progresses, it will lose its control over Gaza.
What a difference two years makes: On October 8, 2023, Israel’s strategic outlook was bleak. Hamas had just inflicted a horrific blow and menaced southern Israel, Hezbollah had begun to bombard the north, and Iran’s other minions were preparing further attacks.
Today, the situation is much improved. Hezbollah’s prewar leaders are mostly dead and their organization is paralyzed, Bashar al-Assad’s government no longer exists, Iran’s drone and missile production is a shadow of its prewar self, and its nuclear program is in tatters. Jerusalem has doggedly and systematically devastated its foes.
Completing the peace deal would complete the victory. Gaza would finally get a controlling institution that protects Israeli interests and provides for its people. This is not full justice for the victims of October 7, and many of their tormentors will slink away unscathed. But a settlement that makes good on the post-Holocaust promise, that never again shall Jews be murdered en masse, should be celebrated.
And yet the controversy over Israel rages on. This debate is as heated as it is confused, largely because Israel’s most vociferous critics fundamentally misunderstand the strongest forces binding Jerusalem and Washington.
Many of them invert David and Goliath, the story of a plucky young Jew who relied on divine providence and creative tactics to fell a larger and stronger enemy. Hamas is the weaker combatant, so the terrorist group fills David’s role in their morality play. Others imagine that Israel only survives because of its ability to manipulate American politics. They see the so-called Israel lobby as a modern incarnation of Esther and Mordecai, who persuaded the Persian king to spare the Jewish people from an impending pogrom. Silencing these Esthers and Mordecais, they reckon, will doom Israel.
But American sympathy for Israel does not depend on Jewish weakness, nor the alliance on influence peddling. There are important moral reasons to support embattled democracies, Israel among them, and it is no accident that people who love America tend to love Israel too. Many of those people organize politically and make their views known to elected officials. But the alliance’s foundation is much broader and deeper.
Many Americans have wished the Zionists well, but those warm feelings did not immediately translate into a strategic partnership. Washington only embraced the diplomatic and strategic possibilities created by Israeli military power after Israel repeatedly defeated its enemies. The Americans do not value Israel because they have been manipulated, emotionally or otherwise. Jewish strength made the alliance strong.
Another biblical story, of King David and his mighty men, better captures why Israel matters so much to Americans. Some of these elite warriors were not Israelites, but they nevertheless worked with the Jews to defeat their common foes. At times they were too eager to do battle, and David refused a gift they brought to him after one especially risky mission. Without them, Israel would have been in much greater danger.
Modern Israel is a sovereign country, and the United States is not its king, but there are some important similarities: Just as Jerusalem and Washington share friends, Israel's enemies are America's too. The Israelis are remarkably effective at defeating those enemies, and many of the terrorist organizations Israel has counterattacked since October 7 have American blood on their hands. Like King David, the Americans sometimes can only accept these victories with reservations. The Biden administration in particular tried to slow or halt Israeli counteroffensives.
This story also contains an important warning: David did not always reward the mighty men for their faithful service, and his kingdom suffered for it. His reign began to decline when he betrayed one of them, Uriah the Hittite, and as the consequences cascaded, he spent the rest of his life fending off revolts and dissension.
After one of the worst moments in its history, Israel rallied to protect itself and many others. The hostages, their families, and their countrymen are the first to benefit from this great victory. The Americans are not far behind.