I’m not in a position to say what I would do, like, if I was asked to press the button to drop the bomb. I don’t feel like I’d be okay with it either. By the time the person who does press it gets there, they probably have their mind made up as to what they’re going to do, through their training and customs.

There’s a story that I remember from, I want to say at least 10 years ago, about an Israeli pilot who was ordered to bomb a building from which rockets were being launched at Israel, and the standard warnings were given (“roof knocking,” where they essentially fire percussive blanks at the building first, if memory serves), and as the plane flew by the pilot could see dozens of people on the roof of the building, waving at him, and I believe he did not drop the bomb. JFK famously said, “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” My neighbor is Canada. They want their people to pay taxes, vote, serve on juries, occasionally to join the military, and be decent to each other. The government in Gaza wants it’s people to go stand on the roof, and would give your family a pension not for a career of service, but for being a suicide attacker. What if Gaza was your neighbor?

It’s been decades of Hamas leadership and even before Hamas, decades more of extremist violence was also accepted and encouraged by its predecessors, the PA and the PLO, the latter being more of a criminal gang than anything resembling a government. Today, Hamas rules by assassinating any local opposition, such as a prominent fellow in North Gaza who, for the crime of calling for elections, got beaten to death in front of his family and neighbors.

For how many years of suicide bombings and daily rocket attacks would you turn the other cheek, before saying okay ladies and gentleman, gtfo the way, because we’re going to now bomb all the tunnels and every Hamas member we can find. I’d imagine not very many, unlikely 70+ years. Palestine, and especially the nationalists in Gaza, who again, are in charge, have rejected every opportunity for peace. They’ve turned every institution and public utility into instruments of international crime and terror.

The rest of the world would not care one iota how Gazans want to worship and pray, even live like it’s the 14th century, if they stayed inside their borders and exported something other than illegal terrorism, but they won’t. Every public dollar in Gaza gets squandered, stolen from the general population, and turned over to what is at this time and unwinnable war against Israel.

Israel has to intercept thousands of rockets per month launched at its civilians at a cost of $40,000 to $50,000 per rocket. And that’s been going on since 2007, prior to witch the rockets often hit rheir targets. For how many years would your country spend billions of dollars strictly on defending itself from rocket attacks before blowing up the tunnels from which the rocket attacks are carried out?

And, by the way, this is all in the context of Iranian aggression. The rockets and rocket launchers are mostly made in Iran, featuring some supplies from North Korea, each of whom are the first and second largest funders of the tunnels in Gaza. And this is in the context of the fact that Israel is a burgeoning democracy, the only such government in the region, and I believe democracy is the only form of government even capable of granting lasting human rights; certainly not a monarchy or religious dictatorship, where any such rights are basically imaginary, capable of being taken away on the whim of someone claiming to hear the voice of Dog.

I think that at this point there is a general consensus in Israel and in the halls of concerned intelligence and diplomatic circles around the world that Hamas will not be a part of the remainder of this century, and it’s in this context that the incidental casualties are weighed against achieving that objective.

October 7 scared the Israeli people. It wasn’t in any way a military operation. It was purely a terrorist attack. Hamas members were driving in on motorbikes, just firing AK-47s at cars full of families on their way out to dinner, or whatever. I think the Israeli people overwhelmingly feel that enough is enough, and if the people of Gaza aren’t going to get rid of Hamas, then that must mean a good chunk of the people support Hamas. I mean, where are the cooperators? Where are the Gazans openly calling for Hamas to surrender? I see the Gazan efforts in social and regular media to blame every civilian death on Israel, and to say that no terrorists are ever killed in the bombings, only women and kids. Where are the Gazan efforts on social and regular media to identify, locate, and arrest Hamas members?

I think the Isrealis and others I mentioned feel that 1 in 100 is prettu acceptable, in context, although there are certainly many people in Israel who still want to seek other solutions and who find the number of civilian casualties unacceptable. And because Israel is a democracy, those people may freely speak out, we can see their social and regular media campaigns, and there’s a very good chance that the current government in Israel gets voted out at the next election.

Personally, I find the civilian casualties horrific, but feel that the mission of destroying Hamas and their ability to carry out further attacks on Israel and on their own people, including by mental and social subjugation, to be far more important than 1 in 100 lives.

I just don’t see any merit to the argument that this is an intentional genocide, though with twisted facts and unattributed reports pedaled by Hamas themselves, it certainly has an appearance of one. In a genocide though, the Killing apparatus gets more efficient with time. In a genocide, there are no warnings before a bomb drops. The aggressornin a genocide doesn’t let flow food, water and medicine into the hands of the people they’re trying to kill. It seems to me that Israel is taking every reasonable precaution to limit civilian casualties, and sending in food, water, and medicine, and that it is the cultural exemplar set by Hamas that readily explains the excess deaths; Hamas could surrender tomorrow, turn the place over to an interim government, and join a meaningful ceasefire, and not one more bomb would fall.

When I consider the strength and tactics of Hamas, they have absolutely zero chance of accomplishing any mission of theirs through military means. They are simply outnumbered and outgunned. Their only possible effective strategy is through international law, and for that to succeed the number of civilians killed must be unacceptable to the west. It is only that context that October 7 makes any strategic sense; what was the purpose of the attack if not to provoke Israel to start bombing tunnels and bombing Hamas? Similarly, only in this context do Hamas’s movements and tactics make any sense; why surround themselves with family and friends, hide under schools and hospitals, and block evacuations if not to ensure excess civilians are killed?

The article I linked above contained a paragraph describing some hoax calls by Hamas and posted on Facebook after an IDF bombing warning was issued. Here’s some other links with video and audio recordings:

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/378465

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-gaza-resident-says-hamas-preventing-evacuations-thousands-return-north/

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bjqk4hpft

https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/israel-hamas-war-gaza-strip/card/hamas-tells-civilians-not-to-evacuate-to-the-south-T9TX4p5KHl930OHJDyfp

https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/10/14/hamas-blocks-gazans-from-evacuating-to-safe-zones/