so long as the idf is demonstrating some kind of progress in dismantling hamas, i want to avoid criticizing them. it's not pleasant to see and understand what is happening in gaza, but i understand that these people voted for a terrorist group to govern them, and this is kind of what they deserve as a consequence of that.
let it be a lesson to the whole world: stop supporting terrorism. this is what happens when you support terrorism; this is what will keep happening, if you continue to.
however, in recent weeks, and notwithstanding the assassination of the group's leader in faraway iran, after having ventured away from his cozy retreat in qatar, i have not seen much progress. the idf is chasing civilians around from place to place while it blows this or that up, which must be a very hellish existence. these people are not innocent and i do not want this misconstrued as a plea to protect the innocent, because they can't and shouldn't be analyzed or interpreted that way. but, i never did and never would support a merely punitive operation designed to torture and harass, no matter how guilty the population may be. collective punishment is indeed a war crime, and while these definitions are difficult to apply to the context, israel is getting to the point where it's pushing it too far.
i'm not calling for a cease fire.
i'm calling for israel to eliminate the remaining hamas leadership and hurry up and get 'er done. israelis may be developing resolve, and they should, but the international audience needs to see more progress. it's not going to tolerate a prolonged campaign of collective punishment for the sake of raining hellfire on the wretched. this can't be aimless torture. they need to finish the job and liquidate what is left of hamas.
however, israel should not pull away from the border with egypt, and probably not for decades. a long term consequence of what the palestinians did on october 7th needs to be a near permanent loss of sovereignty over the border with egypt, and everybody is going to have to deal with that. this issue should be revisited a generation or two from now.