Very Simple, Really

Next Ghazi Hamad, a senior member of Hamas’s political bureau, proclaimed on Lebanese TV that Hamas’s attacks on October 7 were just the first of many to come, and that the Gaza-Israeli border would be one of continual warfare. “Israel is a country that has no place in our land. We must remove it because it constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation,” he explained. In short, Israel must be destroyed.

There is no reason to doubt Hamad’s sincerity on this point. He is simply repeating what is already explicit in Hamas’s charter. Thus Israel has no choice but to destroy Hamas. Indeed Israel may be obligated to do so under the anti-genocide conventions, in light of Hamas’s expressed genocidal intent towards the Jews of Israel.

Israel’s entry into Gaza has nothing to do with exacting revenge. It is an act of self-defense, pure and simple. True, the bloodthirsty mobs on campuses and in major metropolitan areas worldwide bellow that Israel is a colonialist intruder in the Middle East, and lacks any right to exist. But they can hardly expect Israel to acquiesce in that judgment and agree to its own disappearance. Point one.

Point two: Destroying Hamas requires destroying its vast network of underground tunnels, which rival the London underground in length, and eliminating its entire military command and infrastructure.