Noah Rothman
National Review, Oct. 7, 2023
“Israel does not have to learn to live with Hamas.”
As of this writing, 90 Israelis are confirmed dead as a result of the invasion of Southern Israel by the Iran-backed terrorist organization, Hamas. According to the Israeli Health Ministry, over 900 more Israelis are wounded and hospitalized, many of them in critical condition. Israeli seniors were slaughtered while waiting for the bus.
Concertgoers were fired upon. People were gunned down in their cars. Citizens were hunted down from house to house, murdered while trying to protect their families. Throats were slashed. Structures were torched. This was a massacre.
The surprise attack was pared with a barrage of thousands of missiles originating in Gaza, which rained down on Israeli civilian targets across the country. Cities and towns in Southern Israel are still contested as Israeli Defense Forces continue to clear out Hamas’s remaining invasion forces. The precise number of Israelis Hamas has taken captive both in Israel and in its Gaza-based strongholds is unknown, but the IDF is expected to attempt their rescue. That will entail significant ground operations inside Gaza, which may compel another Iranian proxy militia, Hezbollah, to enter the conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared “war” on Hamas in response to this terrorist attack, but that war’s presently limited and achievable objectives could soon expand.
Israel’s retaliatory response is coming. But when the initial shock of Hamas’s horrific attack has worn off, you’re sure to hear false equivalences and fallacies designed to stay the hands of officials in Jerusalem. You’ve probably already heard or seen them. The predictable special pleading is unconvincing, strategically unsound, and at times morally reprehensible, and it deserves to be dispensed with now.
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