No Cease Fire Before Victory

 

People need to remember some basic facts about the war in Gaza. This war has a right side and a wrong side. Israel is right and should win. Hamas is wrong and should lose. It is right and appropriate to have regret and compassion for casualties among civilians. However when one side hides behind civilian human shields as a matter of strategy, it, not its opponent, is morally responsible for those casualties. The civilian casualties are the fault of Hamas and not the armed forces of Israel, and it is wrong to demand that those armed forces stop or back off because Hamas has human shields. Demanding a cease fire before Hamas is defeated is demanding that Hamas gets away with what it did on October 7^th and remains capable of doing it again. It is interesting that those demanding a cease fire because of casualties among civilians in Gaza do not suggest or even mention the obvious way to minimize them. Hamas’s “fighters” could dig in in strong points from which they had evacuated civilians and fight it out like men. My guess is that is because they either side with Hamas or realize that there is no chance Hamas’s murders would behave as soldiers, or both.