Leave it to Donald Trump to tell the uncomfortable truth about the often feckless but tough-talking Bibi Netanyahu. Of course, the current Israeli leader is just following in the wake of other Israeli tough guys, who were not able to stay the course when it came to backing up their bold rhetoric.

The most notorious of these was in 1982. Israel committed to defeating the PLO and installing a friendly Arab regime with the 1982 Lebanon War. Israel allied with the Maronite Christians and the South Lebanon Army (SLA) and did manage to expel the PLO from the country. So far, so good. Unfortunately, the Iranian-backed Hezb’allah took over from there, murdering our bravest ally, Lebanese President Bachir Gemayel.

Terror attacks on the Maronites and Israel’s IDF scared off the Israeli Cabinet and they began pulling out in 1983, leaving most of the country in the hands of Iranian-allied extremists. The humiliating car bombings of the U.S. embassy and the U.S. Marine and French forces (there to help restore order and support the Israeli plan) followed.

In 2000, the cowardly Ehud Barak even abandoned southern Lebanon, leaving most SLA soldiers to flee or be executed by Hezb’allah. Such weakness only emboldened the terrorists, leading to the humbling 2006 War.

Lebanon was a majority Christian country until this fiasco, and Arab terror chiefs have understood ever since, Israel’s leaders simply don’t have the stamina for protracted conflicts.

The situation is similar in the Gaza Strip, the 4x25 mile terrorist hotbed. The place is now a lot like the fictional Manhattan penal island in the classic Kurt Russell movie Escape from New York. Gaza was originally part of Egypt, captured by Israel in the Six-Day War. In 1979, when Israel returned the rest of the Sinai Peninsula, Anwar Sadat said no thanks to Gaza, as it was full of radicals.

The IDF then had to patrol the place for 25 years in the face of terror attacks, before finally leaving in 2005. With this, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, author of the Lebanon War and the ultimate “tough guy Israeli,” adopted a full “Kurt Russell” option. Along with Egypt, he began putting up an enhanced automated border fence and letting the crazies run wild inside. (Workers with real jobs in Israel are still allowed to cross the border)

But that only led to the Iranian-backed Hamas faction murdering the remaining PLO administrators and taking charge, just as in Lebanon.  They began smuggling in Iranian missiles to constantly bombard border towns. Israel and the United States then spent untold billions on the Iron Dome , a missile defense system, which is fairly effective, when not overwhelmed.

Hamas also upped the ante from time to time, launching military forays across the fence, bringing Israel back to Gaza, such as in 2008 and now. 

I expect this time around that Israel will shoot even more Hamas fighters, and destroy many more buildings in Gaza. Which is fine. But they won’t do what it is really needed here -- a permanent occupation of Gaza and establishment of a pro-Israel Arab state.

That’s because Israelis of all political stripes struggle to get their heads around what it will take to ensure real security. To begin with, they need a much larger army. This can be obtained by conscripting religious Jews and Arab citizens. These groups make up something like 40% of the young men, but until now, they have been politically untouchable.

Like it or not, Israelis are also going to have to embrace the idea of “building democracy” in the most dangerous parts of the Muslim world. That likely means killing Iranian big shots like Ayatollah Khamenei, not just his nuclear scientist pawns, to bring the mullah regime to a close and with it, Hezb’allah Lebanon and its rocket arsenal.

It certainly means full “de-Nazification”, if you will, of the Gaza Strip. Public institutions, especially the schools there, need to be cleansed of Islamic terror idealogues, and mass, long-term detention of Hamas fighters needs to take place, much as is being done with MS-13 in El Salvador.

And of course, the Arab men of Gaza need to be conscripted into whatever local constabulary is set up. This will make the radicals very unhappy, and many will emigrate, rather than serve under the Israeli occupation. All the better.

Israel and its leaders have spent decades trying every short cut and easy way out of dealing with their terror neighbors in Gaza. Let’s hope they now find the wisdom and the courage to finally fix that place permanently.

Frank Friday is an attorney in Louisville, KY.      

Image: Physicians for Human Rights