Israel and Hamas

 

First one has to state the obvious. People are not the same everywhere. Those in Hamas committing atrocities are inhuman savages, and so is anyone cheering them on in their savagery. Then one can make the point that that does not apply to all Muslims or even to all Palestinians in Gaza. The ideal solution for dealing with Hamas’s terrorists would be (to paraphrase Jacob McCandles) to hunt them down and kill them, every mother’s son of them. A good practical solution is to come close enough to that ideal that they and their organization no longer have a capability to do harm. Hamas is known for using civilians as human shields, even to operating out of schools, mosques, and hospitals, causing enemies to hold back for fear of harming innocent civilians. This time the priority should not be to harm Hamas some, while avoiding civilian casualties, but rather to destroy Hamas, while inflicting as few civilian casualties as are consistent with that objective. The blame for civilian casualties in Gaza is Hamas’s, just as the blame for civilian casualties in the American bomber offensive over Germany was Hitler’s. Americans should support Israel in its war, and the American government should be ready to take direct action to free Americans held as hostages and to punish those who harm Americans. Beyond that the government should find a way to make the rulers of Iran suffer painfully, since Iran is behind the attack.