Israel

Clifford D. May, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies

Why Israel Must Win the Middle East War

By Paul Strand
CBN News

CBNNews.com – Cliff May is president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a group that focuses on the ideologies behind terrorism and the policies that can best eradicate it. He’s a former New York Times foreign correspondent, a senior editor at GEO, and associate editor at Newsweek. May has been keeping a close eye on the current conflict between Israel, Hezbollah, and Hamas. Recently, CBN senior Washington correspondent Paul Strand sat down with May to discuss the ramifications of the war and related topics.

CBN: What are Hezbollah's goals in this war with Israel?

CLIFF MAY: Well…I think that Hezbollah has its own goals, but it is also carrying out certain goals on behalf of Syria and on behalf of Iran. Among its own goals are this: to show it's the main champion in that region of Hamas -- a main friend of Hamas -- and the main champion of the Arabs and the Muslims against the Israelis. They're the ones who are actually out there fighting the Israelis.

Of course, their long-term goals...there's no puzzle about that. They have said it is to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Their long-term goals are nothing short of ethnic cleansing and genocide. That's very clear. As for Syria, their military got out of Lebanon, but they're still very influential there. They want to maintain Lebanon as a client state. Hezbollah helps them do that.

And for Iran, there are all sorts of things. Among others, Iran right now is fighting with the U.S. over whether or not Iran is going to get nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. This is a way for Iran to say to the U.S., "We can do a lot more to hurt you than you can do to hurt us. So just leave us alone to develop the weapons we want to develop."

CBN: What else might Iran be up to in this particular fight?

MAY: Iran is saying, "We are now the champions of the Islamic world. We are the ones who are going to lead the fight against Christendom -- against the crusaders, against the Zionists," against what you and I would call the free world. One of the reasons you're seeing the Saudis, the Egyptians, and a lot of the other Sunni Arab countries uncomfortable with what's going with Hezbollah and Iran is because “they” want to lead this movement. They don't want the Shia -- whom they consider deviants from the religion -- to be leading it. They don't want them to be moving to the front of this march.

So Iran is saying, "We're leading a worldwide movement, a militant Islamist movement, against the West, and we have power and we have global reach in a way that nobody else does, including the Americans."

CBN: Do Hezbollah and Hamas have a religious agenda here? Is this a religious war?

MAY: It is very much a religious war for both of them, even though Hamas is Sunni and Hezbollah is Shia. But they are, both of them, militant Islamists. And they both have the same view, and it's very clear if you read the Hamas charter what that view is.

Look, most people understand that in a militant Islamist society -- Saudi Arabia among them -- if a Muslim converts to another religion, that is a crime punishable by death. They hold the same view about land.

Once a land is conquered by Muslims, it can never go back to being ruled by infidels. They believe it is an endowment from Allah to the Muslims. They can either fight for it, or not do their religious duty.

That is why they believe that Israel, which was once conquered by Muslims, must again be run by Muslims. That's why they believe that much of Spain and parts of France and Hungary must be. Kashmir has a Muslim majority, so it must also be ruled by Muslims. And that almost surely explains the recent train bombings in India.

CBN: You've worked in the major media. Do those reporters understand that when Hezbollah and Hamas say they want to wipe Israel off the face of the map, they mean it? Or do those reporters view them as a couple of groups with reasonable moderates who'll be open to compromise, and ditching their more fanatical demands, when it's time to cut some future deal?

MAY: I think they don't often understand how much Hamas and Hezbollah mean what they say. The reporters do what you call "mirror imaging." They think, "If I said that, I wouldn't mean it, so if they say that, they can't mean it." They think, "This is a political group. That's maybe their negotiating posture, but surely they're willing to back off." They don't understand what we've just discussed. It's not a negotiating posture. It's a religious conviction. And because it's a religious conviction, it's very hard for them to back off from it.

One thing you have to say is that Hamas and Hezbollah are very candid. They're not devious about what they want...for the most part. It's there in their charter. They won't remove it. They feel to remove it would be to fail to do their religious duty. So they're telling us what they want to do...they're telling us what their ambitions are. The question is whether we'll listen. And I think as you rightly point out, in the major media, a lot of people are not listening and not believing.

CBN: How do you see this war ending?

MAY: We don't know, but here's what I'm hopeful about: now that it's begun, it will conclude with Hezbollah being defeated and disarmed. Keep in mind, everybody in the world…theoretically… says that's what they want. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559, one of the few U.N. resolutions that has the force of law under Chapter, calls for Hezbollah to be disarmed.

But, it doesn't say who should do it. The Lebanese don't have the power to do it. I don't think the French Foreign Legion is going to come in and do it. If Israel does not carry out this resolution... [if] Israel does not disarm Hezbollah now...who will and when? The answer is nobody, ever. And Hezbollah will get stronger next time. They have bigger missiles now than they had in the past. They will have bigger, more powerful missiles in the future.

If this conflagration does not end in Hezbollah's defeat, there will be another conflict later, and it will be much worse. It will be terrible for the Lebanese, for the Israelis, for the Palestinians if this is merely put on ice and then allowed to thaw later on.

All the suffering everybody's going through, it should result in something good. That means the defeat of Hezbollah. It means Hezbollah disarmed. It means the south of Lebanon is controlled again by Lebanese forces, not by a militia, a terrorist group that is funded, directed, and financed by Syria and Iran.

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