In 1907, Ḥaim Naḥman Bialik paid a visit to Sholem Aleichem, then living in Geneva, and on his departure forgot to take his slippers. His host wrote him a characteristically playful letter:

You should know I have some greetings to pass on to you, can you guess from whom? From your shoes; yes, from your slippers. The morning after your departure from Switzerland, I got up, as usual, quite early and, as usual, I bent down looking for my shoes under my bed. I have a look—and find a pair of shoes! Completely unfamiliar shoes, checkered slippers with leather tips. I examine the shoes—quite good shoes, brand new! Whose shoes are they? Long story short: they are Bialik’s shoes! How did Bialik’s shoes get here? He probably forgot them? Or perhaps he left them here for me as a gift?

Anyway they caused quite a commotion in the house: Shoes this! Shoes that! First along comes [my daughter] Tissy, who made the claim that the shoes should belong to her; her Berkovitsh got on really well with Bialik, so she should get the shoes. The second to come along was my Lyala, the one who is studying medicine: it’s only fair, she said, that she should get the shoes. Why? It goes like this: she has no slippers. She said she’d really wanted to buy new shoes for some time now. Emma, the third, said that the shoes may as well go to her, because of course she has no shoes! The smallest, Marusi, joins in claiming that her heart is not made of stone and that she too has a right to shoes. Numtshik, hearing that we are talking about shoes and without even waiting to find out what shoes we are talking about, cries out: “Mama, I want shoes!”

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.