No self-respecting dog will shirk a fight: it’s first a question of honour, defending your position — but it might be your territory too, or it could be over a valued possession, like a bone, or a ball.
If the hounds are unequal in size and fitness, the fight will usually end quickly when the lesser dog rolls over and bares it’s neck, and the bigger dog will back off, the victor.
If more equal in size, the scrap will often be fast and furious until both dogs have lost a chunk of fur or blood is flowing, when they’ll take a breather, growl some more but back away. Most dogs — like most people — prefer a peaceful life.
There are some dogs though that will never let go or back off — the fighting breeds like the pit bulls, Rottweilers and other dogs with a higher pain tolerance, bred for fighting. That’s just the way they are.
This brings me to the vexed question of the Middle East, where dogs could generally teach the humans some useful lessons — but they haven’t been watching how dogs do it. It’s been contested territory for at least 3000 years, at least among those bred for fighting.
We know the ancient tribes of Canaanites, Israelites, Philistines and other groups have lived in the Levant since prehistoric times and the Israelis and Palestinians are descended from them.
The Boss says the Israelite kingdoms were dominant around 3000 years ago, until the Assyrians conquered the region in the 8th century BCE, then the Babylonians took over in 601 BCE, followed by the Persians in 539 BCE.
Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire around 330 BCE, until the Romans turned up in 63 BCE. The Arab Muslim conquest occurred in 636, two years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. More dynasties followed, with the Crusades in 1099 establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but it didn’t last long.
Along came the Mongols, followed by the Egyptian reunification of Palestine — and then the Ottomans, who ruled from the 1500s until World War I. That’s when the British issued the Balfour Declaration, favouring the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. And the fighting has ground on since, ferociously. There are a lot of pit bulls there, disinclined to let go.
With the Israelis having delivered a few savage bites lately, plenty of people and countries around the world — not to mention the families of the Israeli hostages and the long-suffering Palestinian civilians in Gaza — are thinking it would be a good time to back off: let the combatants lick their wounds and contemplate.
The Boss remembers the last time Israel invaded Lebanon, in 1982, where they stayed for 18 years, lost 1100 soldiers and finally kicked out the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. It was a pyrrhic victory: what they got as their reward was Hezbollah — a far more lethal foe.
And here they are again. What can we expect to be different? Hezbollah has lobbed well over 8000 rockets into northern Israel since October 7 and you can’t blame Israel for wanting to stop them.
Still, most wounded dogs would take a win and back off to think about it — just in case Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran all consider a cease-fire a welcome idea. It would save lives for one thing.
But Mr Netanyahu is the pit bull type, bred for war — and just can’t let go. Besides, as The Boss says, Bibi has powerful political and personal reasons for pressing on with the fight. But if you ask me, a pit bull doesn’t need to see an end game. Fighting is all he knows. Woof!