VICTOR JOECKS: Violence is the foundation of peace

If you’re like most people, you didn’t spend any time this week worrying about someone murdering you. Don’t take it for granted.

The peace we enjoy in the United States is far from inevitable. People have been killing each other throughout recorded history. One of the first stories in the Bible is Cain murdering his brother Abel. Many of the major events in ancient history are wars and battles. Alexander the Great is famous, because he subdued his enemies. The Aztecs subjected their captives to human sacrifice and cannibalism.

So what explains our safety from foreign enemies?

Perhaps human nature has changed over time. But the 20th century was the bloodiest in human history. World War II and Germany’s atrocities were only a small part of that. It’s estimated that communist regimes murdered more than 165 million people. There are currently wars raging around the globe. This is all evidence that the human heart remains evil and depraved.

Technological advancements haven’t made safety an inevitability. If anything, war is deadlier because countries, armies and terrorists can kill more efficiently than ever.

Progressives likes to talk about being the right side of history. Have the world’s 8+ billion people come to a universal agreement on the importance of respecting human rights? The barbaric Hamas attack on Israel, which included beheading babies and raping girls and women, should disabuse anyone of that notion.

No, the reason you live in safety is much simpler — violence. The U.S. military defeated our enemies. They won those battles with bullets, bombs and blood, not platitudes and peace signs.

The world is filled with people who hate you. The Houthis are a rebel group in Yemen that’s backed by Iran. Its motto is “Death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews and victory to Islam.” Iranian political leaders have chanted “Death to America.” In 2022, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said, “Russia has the might to put all of our brash enemies in their place.”

The threat of violence is why those people don’t attack us. Our enemies know the U.S. military would crush them if they launched a direct assault on this country. Against many enemies, strength is the only effective deterrent.

No, this violence, even though morally justified, isn’t pleasant. It’s horrible and repulsive. But it’s necessary because the alternative — the death and torture of our fellow citizens — is even more horrible and repulsive.

Violence is the foundation of the peace you enjoy today.

That’s why it’s so wrong for Democrats such as President Joe Biden to demand Israel stop attacking Hamas. This assumes leftists are acting in good faith and not just trying to disguise their antisemitism. In some cases, that’s not accurate.

On Wednesday, Biden called for a “pause” in the fighting. Sen. Bernie Sanders went further: “We must urge an immediate cease-fire,” he wrote on X. “The killing of Palestinians and Israelis must end.”

If you can overlook the slaughter of 1,400 people in Israel — which you shouldn’t — there’s a surface-level appeal to this. If both sides stopped fighting, fewer people would die right now. But Hamas remains committed to killing Jews.

“Israel is a country that has no place on our land,” Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said on TV recently, as translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute. “We must remove that country.”

Asked if that meant the annihilation of Israel, he replied, “Yes, of course.” He continued, “Therefore, nobody should blame us for the things we do.”

Hamas doesn’t want a cease-fire. It wants a chance to regroup and rearm before attacking Israel again.

Violence — directed against terrorists such as Hamas wherever they hide — is the only path to peace in the Middle East.

Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.