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Weekend Reads
“Enough with the sophistry about international laws and human rights. The crucibles in which these ideas were forged, raging with the fires of century-old conflicts, have now cooled down and crumbled,” writes Liel Leibovitz.
Following Hamas’s “return” of some hostages’ remains—including Kfir Bibas, who was nine months old at the time of his kidnapping—Leibovitz warns that the terrorists’ barbarism is what happens when evil is met with too many clever arguments and not enough swift deeds.
Key Insights
1. Gazans overwhelmingly support Hamas.
A large-scale survey of Gazans, conducted by researchers from Oxford University and published in Foreign Affairs just last week, showed that whereas only 36 percent of Gazans supported Hamas prior to October 7, 2023, the number spiked to well over a half in March 2024, and began to decline only when Israel successfully eliminated Yahya Sinwar in October of last year. Which should come as no surprise considering the fact that 98 percent of those surveyed described themselves as religious, and nearly as many said they saw the conflict with Israel in religious, not political terms: the Jews were usurpers who must be banished.
2. President Trump’s proposal for Gaza fulfills a strategic necessity for Israel.
President Donald Trump’s proposal to empty Gaza of its inhabitants is, if we’re honest, more merciful than any Gazan deserves, offering the savages who heard Kfir Bibas sob without showing a shred of basic human decency the one thing that precious baby will never have—a chance of a good and peaceful life elsewhere. Nevertheless, we must embrace this proposal, because at its heart is the one true and inescapable sentiment: Israelis can no longer be expected to live in proximity to those who desire nothing more than their death.
3. Israel needs to demonstrate its resolve.
Those exploding beepers were a marvel. The killing of Hassan Nasrallah was a thing of beauty. But you don’t win wars and secure the peace with a sprinkling of daring commando acts or a dash of excellent air raids. You win wars and secure the peace by making your enemy realize that they had lost, and in the Middle East, as anyone who has ever consulted a history book could tell you, that means only one thing: seizing land. Israel, then, must annex Judea and Samaria right now.
Quotes may be edited for clarity and length.
Go Deeper
To achieve total victory over Hamas, Israel would need to do more than demilitarize Hamas. It would need to deradicalize all of Gaza, argued Member of the Israeli Knesset Amit Halevi.
Michael Doran and Gadi Taub discussed what President Donald Trump’s postwar plan for Gaza means for Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran, and the Middle East.
Liel Leibovitz explains why any agreement that fails to remove Hamas from power in Gaza telegraphs a lack of resolve and rewards the terrorists for their heinous crimes.
