Andrew Bolt: Benjamin Netanyahu is the Churchill of our times

Be grateful that in a West where many weaklings now rule we have a Churchill in Jerusalem who has led Israel to stunning battlefield successes.

Now Yahya Sinwar has died, let’s admit an unpopular truth: Benjamin Netanyahu is the Churchill of our times.

Hate Israel’s prime minister all you like – and our Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, has made clear her loathing – Netanyahu has led Israel to stunning battlefield successes that could finally give his country peace after 76 years of struggle.

Last Thursday, his soldiers killed Sinwar, head of the Hamas terrorist group which ran Gaza and a year ago started this war by massacring 1200 Jews and taking 251 hostages.

The top leadership of Hamas is now wiped out. Military chief Mohammed Deif was killed in a bomb strike. Ismael Haniyeh, head of Hamas abroad, was blown up in his bedroom in the middle of Iran’s capital.

Benjamin Netanyahu has led Israel to stunning battlefield successes. Picture: Ohad Zwigenberg

Israel says it’s killed 20,000 other Hamas fighters, and the latest opinion poll – by the Arab World for Research and Development – suggests just 6 per cent of Gaza residents now want Hamas to lead them after the war. They know Hamas started a war that’s led them to destruction.

But there’s to Netanyahu credit. He’s also now smashed the Hezbollah terrorist army that for a year fired missiles from Lebanon into Israel.

Israel’s counter-attack started with one of the greatest intelligence stings. Israel tricked Hezbollah into buying 5000 booby-trapped pagers, and on September 17 exploded them as Hezbollah officials and fighters checked why they were buzzing.

In one strike, thousands of leading Hezbollah operatives were taken out of action.

The next day Israel blew up Hezbollah walkie- talkies as well.

With Hezbollah’s commanders almost literally blinded, Israel struck. Hezbollah’s top commanders, including leader Hasan Nasrallah, are now dead. Israel estimates it’s also destroyed two thirds of Hezbollah’s missile.

Iran, which armed Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthi militants in Yemen, has also been rocked.

It launched two massive missile attacks of is own on Israel, yet killed only one poor Palestinian in the West Bank.

Israel is yet to deliver its response to the 181 missiles Iran fired on October 1.

Israel has proved it is terrible in its vengeance, and now peace is not just possible but the only sane course for its neighbours.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could finally give his country peace after 76 years of struggle.

The United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Bahrain already knew this and signed accords with Israel, figuring it was safer and more profitable.

The pathetic way Sinwar died proves it. Israeli military video shows him, wounded and covered in dust, sitting alone among debris in a chair. He sees the Israeli drone that’s flown inside to find him, and throws a stick at it.

How pathetic. He died like a mad monkey, throwing a stick at the high tech future he could have created for his own people by choosing peace over jihad.

That message will cut through.

But remember: none of this would have happened had Israel listened to the Albanese Government, or to US president Joe Biden, who couldn’t figure that in a brutal neighbourhood it’s safer to be feared than pitied. .

Our government told Israel to not “escalate”. Israel instead destroyed Hamas.

Our government told Israel not to go into Lebanon. It instead smashed Hezbollah.

Our government told Israel not to go into Rafah. It instead found Sinwar there, and blew a hole in his head.

Benjamin Netanyahu is the Churchill of our times.

At every step, the Albanese Government and Biden pulled at Netanyahu’s arm, trying to make him stop, calling for peace just when the terrorists were losing and needed time to regroup.

Had Netanyahu bent to their pressure, Hamas and Hezbollah would today still have their armies. Iran, their puppet master, would still be literally calling the shots. And Israel, mauled and timid, would be a sitting duck.

True, Netanyahu has a deep stain on his reputation. He was in charge when Hamas a year ago exploited Israel’s complacency and invaded, massacring, raping, beheading and kidnapping Jewish civilians.

That Netanyahu refused to resign or even admit personal responsibility seemed disgusting, yet it was the yin to this yang – he’s a leader who never gives up.

In even this, there was something of Churchill. Churchill similarly seemed finished when, as Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty in World War 1, he ordered the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.

But when western civilisation was threatened by Hitler’s fascists in World War 2, he saved it.

Now there’s a new alliance of fascists bringing war – Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

Be grateful that in a West where many weaklings now rule we have a Churchill in Jerusalem to show what it is to fight. And win.

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Benjamin Netanyahu is the Churchill of our times