“I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do.”
The ringing words of Winston Churchill’s “we shall fight on the beaches” speech have powerful overtones for what Israel is trying to do today. Sure enough, no one came to the aid of Britain and her Commonwealth between the time that Churchill delivered that speech on June 4, 1940 and Russia being forced into the Second World War a year later. It took a further six months for Adolf Hitler to declare war on the United States, four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
In that 12-month period from June 1940 to June 1941, Britain and her Commonwealth formed the tip of the spear against “the menace of tyranny”, just as brave Israel today represents the tip of civilisation’s spear against the tyranny and barbarism of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism and exterminationism. The Nazi bombing of London in 1940-41, known as the Blitz, went on for several months, just as Israel has had to endure virtually daily rocket fire from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Yet in 1940-41, Britain was able to count on having lethal military aid delivered to it by its allies. She did not have to undergo the humiliation of having any of that aid embargoed on the grounds that it might be used for war crimes, with the clear implication that the British Foreign Office’s human rights lawyers do believe that war crimes are being committed in Gaza, despite the IDF being the most ethically sound military in world history.
Similarly, in 1940-41, organisations such as the Gestapo and SS were clearly identified as the enemy, and elaborate traps were laid for Abwehr agents operating in Britain, every one of whom was captured and expertly turned to work for British Intelligence. By total contrast, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the sinister state-within-a-state whose terrorist operations extend across the Middle East and into the West, has not even been proscribed by the British government as a terrorist organisation. It is the unthinkable equivalent of Churchill allowing the SS to operate in London during the Blitz, under “sanction” but not proscription.
Although the USSR and USA were not fighting the Second World War beside Britain in 1940, and only came into the war as a result of Hitler’s decisions rather than their own in 1941, the British were supported stalwartly by Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and other possessions and dependencies around the globe.
By total contrast, much of the world has shunned Israel as she fights its battles against Islamist tyranny and terrorism, ultimately for them as well as for herself.
The recent scene in the United Nations where delegates filed out of the General Assembly room rather than even listen to Bibi Netanyahu sums up the situation.
Meanwhile, South Africa has tried to divert attention from the corruption of its own government by making unfounded charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court.
At least the neutral nations in 1940-41 were privately hoping that civilisation would destroy barbarism: today they cannot even be counted on to do that.
What Churchill said about Britain’s ability “to ride out the storm of war” has powerful echoes in modern-day Israel.
The performance of the IDF was woeful on October 7 itself but since then it has fought with superb professionalism in destroying and degrading Hamas in Gaza, although of course we still eagerly await the moment when Yahya Sinwar meets the same fate as the Führer in the Reich Chancellery on April 30, 1945. Similarly, the failures of the hitherto-much-vaunted Israeli intelligence were apparent for all to see on October 7, yet since then it has carried out the flawless supply-chain “grim beeper” attacks that have done so much to cripple Hezbollah. Churchill would recognise the phenomenon of these early humiliations – with hardly a significant victory from 1939 to El Alamein in 1942, except for the Battle of Britain – turning into later triumphs. The IDF’s steep but highly successful learning curve in Gaza and now southern Lebanon has been impressive, just as it was for the Allied armies in the Second World War.
To paraphrase Churchill in his and his country’s finest hour, Israel is proving herself yet again able to defend her home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what she is going to try to do. It is the solemn duty of everyone who cares about the defeat of barbarism to stand beside her.
Lord Roberts is a historian and broadcaster and the biographer of Winston Churchill
