In an essay on the life and career of Theodor Herzl—the man who founded the organized Zionist movement that would pave the way to the creation of a Jewish state—Joseph Epstein writes:

As a future nation, the Jews needed a land, a flag, a leader. Herzl came eventually to believe that only Palestine would satisfy the hunger of the Jews for a homeland. A flag was also needed: “If you want to lead a crowd you have to raise a symbol above their heads. I am thinking of a white flag with gold stars.” As for a leader, he of course was it. [About Herzl] the word charismatic [can be] used with precision. The charismatic leader, we know from Max Weber, has “a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities.” Herzl qualified.

Psychological interpretations of the extraordinary character that was Theodor Herzl are perhaps irresistible. [His biographer] Ernst Pawel thought him manic depressive, but he wrote before that term was replaced by bipolar disease, a more serious affair in every way. [In his more recent biography], Derek Penslar, who disavows any attempt “to diagnose Herzl from beyond the grave,” nonetheless does precisely that, and holds that “Herzl’s psychological anguish nourished his political passion” and that “Herzl desperately needed a project to fill his life with meaning and keep the blackness of depression at bay. Zionism was that project, which contained, sustained, and inspired him.” Eschewing personal psychology, Amos Elon believed, as do I, that Herzl’s “courage derived from an unbounded, simple faith in the rightness and urgency of his cause.”

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.