Is it appropriate to use Matt. 5:29-30 to explain why God asked Israel to utterly destroy many of the cities when they entered the promise land?

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This question relates to apologetics, not the application of this passage today.

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
(Matt 5:29–30, ESV)

We typically don’t interpret this passage to expect applying it literally. However, might this explain why God commanded the people and possessions of certain cities destroyed when Israel entered the promise land.

Israel continually struggled with many of its people, even some kings, worshiping the gods of the land instead of YHWH. Israel may not have survived as God’s people if people in some of the cities had survived. Israel did not get rid of serving other gods until after the captivity.

To clarify this question without the intent of asking a new question, could Christ have come and accomplished what he did if the Jews were not free from idolatry. Note Jesus’ statement to the Samaritan woman:

You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
(John 4:22, ESV)

He would not have taught on the same level, and would he have been crucified? Thus, it was taking a drastic step for the sake of Christ bringing salvation to the world. A step not for us to repeat after Christ’s crucifixion.

Note, the purpose of this question is apologetic in nature, to explain why God made such a command in Israel’s history. It has no intent to be applied in New Testament time.