Thread by @sfrantzman

Thread: This is the most wrongheaded analysis of the current Israel-Hamas conflict, arguing that being able to defend against terrorism somehow makes conflicts longer.

It shows zero understanding of the need to have security against terrorism. Clearly most other societies have things like airport security, is the argument that having airport security after 9/11 was bad because it saved lives and left little incentive for a deal with Al Qaeda?

Second it ignored historic fact. Israel's conflicts with Hamas are not worse today because of Iron Dome...in fact casualties are LESS and conflicts are SHORTER after Iron Dome was invented.

Consider the fact that the 2009 conflict with Gaza was horrific. Precisely because large volume of rocket fire necessitates a ground invasion, and lack of time to plan precision strikes means far more people are killed on both sides.

But no need to go back to 2009, before Iron Dome. Let's go back to the Second Intifada. Israel had no Iron Dome. So by logic that conflict should have been quick and low casualties. In fact thousands were killed and there was no "incentive" for a solution.

The logic in the West that posits that large numbers of dead from terror somehow creates "incentive" for peace is nonsense. Large numbers killed by terror lead to massive wars and no peace. Having defense systems to stop terror can lead to some forms of peace.

Ironically western countries, the same ones where this "analysis" is made, know this. That's why they have huge levels of security. And in past wars when the homeland was under threat, they didn't just dismantle defenses in order to let their populations suffer.

Under the logic that Iron Dome prolongs the conflict...these people would have argued that the Royal Air Force shoudn't have defended London during the Battle of Britain because it might "prolong" the war and reduce incentive for "peace" with Nazi Germany. Really?

Having early warning systems, radar, air defense, security, against indiscriminate terror, whether rockets or suicide bombers...is essential to showing terror organizations, or groups, or states like Nazi Germany, that they can't win. You don't win by having more casualties.

No one ever won a war by having more casualties. No one ever brought peace by having a higher death toll. You have peace when the enemy also wants peace. When the enemy wants to fire thousands of rockets, so then you build an air defense system to stop them.

Israel's Iron Dome has literally save THOUSANDS of lives in Gaza by making it so Israel doesn't need to respond to every Hamas rocket and that if it responds it can do so with slow, plodding precision and warnings. Not a perfect strategy, but better than invasions.

The moronic argument that Israel shouldn't have Iron Dome is an argument for having Israeli tanks in the center of Gaza. It's a disingenuous argument, that seeks to encourage more war under the guise that war is peace...that war is an "incentive"...which it isn't.

Peace was brought with Egypt and Israel when Egypt realized it would NOT get what it wanted through war...and could GET IT through peace. If Israel had simply dismantled its defenses in the 1970s that wouldn't have brought peace.

You can't bomb your way to peace. Consider how Nixon tried to break the North Vietnamese with his bombing campaigns. In the end of course it didn't work, North Vietnam rolled into Saigon.

Why would you advocate removing Iron Dome from the table, except if you're a supporter of endless war and massive bombing and invasions? Iron Dome prevents invasion. It saves lives. It gives time for thought and ceasefires. It keeps the public from pushing for more war.

If defenses could prevent all terror attacks or all attacks of an enemy, it would force the enemy to have peace. Defensive weapons like Iron Dome don't win wars either. But they make peaceful coexistence more likely.

The onus is on Hamas to opt for the peace and coexistence. It is a powerful terror statelet. But it is pushed by Iran to test Israel's defenses for Hezbollah. It openly says it tried to test Iron Dome and Iran says it is watching. That's the real story of Iron Dome.