This piece by Fareed Zakaria is called “On Gaza, Biden is right and Netanyahu is wrong.” It criticizes Israel for adopting a “strategy, which has been first and foremost to go after Hamas, guns blazing, with very little regard for winning the hearts and minds of Gaza’s civilian population
Not entirely surprisingly, Zakaria put up more convincing stuff when he was plagiarizing it, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/08/fareed-zakaria-plagiarism-copying-and-pasting-in-the-post-american-world-2-0.html. The idea in May 2024 that Israel ought to try to win the "hearts and minds" of people who hate Jews as a profession is roughly equivalent to the idea that in April 1945 the US should have been trying to win the "hearts and minds" of the Nazis in Germany or the shogun militarists in Japan. Fortunately, back then, we knew what Israel needs to know now: What's needed is not winning hearts and minds but winning the war and obliterating the institutions that lay behind it.
Can he possibly believe this insanity? Can any sane person genuinely believe that the correct strategy is to win the hearts and minds of a people indoctrinated with a murderous hatred for Jews? I am genuinely curious how the likes of Thomas Friedman can genuinely believe what they write.
Not entirely surprisingly, Zakaria put up more convincing stuff when he was plagiarizing it, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/08/fareed-zakaria-plagiarism-copying-and-pasting-in-the-post-american-world-2-0.html. The idea in May 2024 that Israel ought to try to win the "hearts and minds" of people who hate Jews as a profession is roughly equivalent to the idea that in April 1945 the US should have been trying to win the "hearts and minds" of the Nazis in Germany or the shogun militarists in Japan. Fortunately, back then, we knew what Israel needs to know now: What's needed is not winning hearts and minds but winning the war and obliterating the institutions that lay behind it.
Can he possibly believe this insanity? Can any sane person genuinely believe that the correct strategy is to win the hearts and minds of a people indoctrinated with a murderous hatred for Jews? I am genuinely curious how the likes of Thomas Friedman can genuinely believe what they write.
Wishful thinking.
Or blind 'faith'. And as Mark Twain famously said, quoting a young boy, 'Faith is believing what you know ain't so.'