With an Israeli election coming in October, it is inevitable that the campaign will feature endless accusations and counteraccusations regarding responsibility and accountability for 7 October 2023 and the protracted and bitter war that followed it.

Unfortunately, most of the accusations will miss their mark.   While both the government and the opposition bear some of the responsibility for the horrors of the Black Sabbath and the victory that followed – a victory that has not yet been fully internalized by the Israeli public – the ultimate cause of both was that Israel…is a democracy.

Why do democracies usually struggle at the beginning of wars? Simply put, in a democracy, you cannot effectively wage war without wide support from the populace.

Consider that there are three types of war – wars of aggression, wars of prevention, and wars of defense.  For a modern democracy, launching a war of aggression is extremely difficult, albeit not impossible.  Making a case to voters that their children should be put in harm’s way for economic advantage or territorial aggrandizement is a hard sell. And justifying aggression on ideological grounds is a challenge when – as in most democracies – the public does not adhere to a single ideological perspective.

It is this inability to mobilize public support for wars of aggression that accounts for what is known as “the Democratic Peace” – a robust statistical relationship identified by social scientists that shows that democracies rarely initiate wars.

Preventative wars are equally difficult to conduct. Once again, a case must be made to voters, and the justifications for a preventative war are often subtle or opaque.  To understand them requires a degree of cognitive effort beyond........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)