How the Israel-Iran Rope-a-Dope Ends

by Michael Owen, #Times of #Israel, #October 15, 2024

My #father's #boxing #lessons taught me that a #fight with the #neighborhood #bully must #conclude with a #knockout – and now is our #chance.

#Evenings after coming #home from #work, my father #taught me how to #box. The only #Jewish #kid in a #working #class neighborhood, I was being #bullied by a slightly older #antisemite who was very #good with his #fists. I wasn’t. So my father, a former #amateur #lightweight, dug up his old #Everlast #gloves and #trained me always to #lead with my #left, again and again, #distracting and #exhausting my #opponent to the point where he let his #guard down. Then you deliver a #roundhouse #right – “the #haymaker,” he called it – a #knockout #punch #straight to the #jaw.

I’ve been #thinking about my father’s lessons throughout this #year of seemingly #endless #war and the #decades of #conflict before it. Israel’s #enemies, it occurs to me, have been leading with their left. The #limited war with #Hezbollah in 2006 and then those with #Hamas in 2008, 2012, and 2014 – all were designed to #deplete us and wear away our #international #legitimacy. The #onslaught of #October7 was a singularly #agonizing jab, but still only a left. The right has yet to be landed. The knockout punch, the haymaker, is the #Iranian #nuclear #weapon.

#Avoiding that #blow #required #preemption. “#Lunge #first,” my father instructed me. “#Strike #fast with all your #strength. Don’t let the other guy #recover.” Israel, #tragically, has yet to deliver that blow. Instead, we have focused on #deflecting the enemy’s repeated lefts while the Iranian nuclear #program #enriches enough #uranium for #multiple #bombs. Not even the recent #revelation of #Iran’s #extensive #role in the #training and #financing of Hamas’s October 7 #attack altered Israel’s #fixation on the lefts.

Iran’s haymaker is coming, and the only #question is whether Israel is prepared to deliver ours first. Can Israel, in classic boxing fashion, use Iran’s strategy against it? Will Israel #emulate #MuhammadAli, the greatest #pugilist of all time, in adopting the tactic of “rope-a-dope?”

Though not taught to me by my father, “#ropeadope” was known to all #sports #fans of my #generation. #Ali would simply put his gloves up, covering his #face, and let his #opponent pound them repeatedly to no effect. Finally, with the #challenger utterly #fatigued, Ali would inflict his #lethal right. An eight-count would follow, concluding with a bell.

Israel, too, could play rope-a-dope with Iran, parlaying its #proxies’ attacks while wearing down the #Ayatollahs’ #resources. We could also lead them to believe that we’re concentrating solely on their left jabs and ignoring their impending right. We could lull them into a worn-out sense of #security and then, unexpectedly, deliver the knock-out.

My father’s lessons worked. When next accosted by the #Jew-hating bully, I suggested that we #fight like #gentlemen and #challenged him to a #match. We each got a pair of the Everlasts and started to box. #Hackneyed as it #sounds, he never laid a glove on me. Rather, I let him #tire and #fluster himself blocking my lefts until I could #exploit his #unguarded face. The #bell – had there been one – pealed my #victory.

I recalled that #experience while reviewing our many rounds of conflict with Iran. They cannot conclude with a #tie. My father, of #blessed #memory, would tell us, as he once assured me, #now is our chance to strike. We may not get another.