Behind the ill-informed and sometimes bad-faith accusations of war crimes and atrocities frequently leveled at the Jewish state lies, in many cases, a fundamental assumption about morality: namely, that the weak are always victims and the powerful always oppressors. In this view Israel is Goliath and the Palestinians are David—and, unlike in the book of Samuel, Goliath is wicked because of his size and strength and David righteous not because of his faith but because of his small size and lack of armor. Avi Woolf comments on the bankruptcy of this outlook, revealed by last Saturday’s events:

By all accounts and reports on all sides, the Hamas force that raided and invaded Israel was a serious one. It was not a ragtag group of desperate, crazed “open-air prisoners” or amateurs who have no choice but to hit soft targets. This was a disciplined army, with weapons, training, and tactics to match. They knew how to deploy effectively, to set ambushes, to fight enemy fire with fire. Everything, in short, that a civilized army does.

Except that far from behaving like a newly inducted and respectable member of the international world, the Hamas force behaved even worse than it did when it was but a “weak” organization blowing up buses. All that discipline, training, and skill was laser-focused on committing crimes of a cruelty and barbarity reminiscent of the kind of horrific human behavior that international treaty after international treaty was supposed to stamp out.

It turns out that weak people are not necessarily good just because they’re weak; they may indeed be evil themselves—and when they become strong, they simply become better at being evil.

For more than a year, the Iran-backed Houthis have been launching drones and missiles at ships traversing the Red Sea, as well as at Israeli territory, in support of Hamas. This development has drastically curtailed shipping through the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, driving up trade prices. This week, the Trump administration began an extensive bombing campaign against the Houthis in an effort to reopen that crucial waterway. Burcu Ozcelik highlights another benefit of this action:

The administration has a broader geopolitical agenda—one that includes countering China’s economic leverage, particularly Beijing’s reliance on Iranian oil. By targeting the Houthis, the United States is not only safeguarding vital shipping lanes but also exerting pressure on the Iran-China energy nexus, a key component of Beijing’s strategic posture in the region.

China was the primary destination for up to 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports in 2024, underscoring the deepening economic ties between Beijing and Tehran despite U.S. sanctions. By helping fill Iranian coffers, China aids Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in financing proxies like the Houthis. Since October of last year, notable U.S. Treasury announcements have revealed covert links between China and the Houthis.

Striking the Houthis could trigger broader repercussions—not least by disrupting the flow of Iranian oil to China. While difficult to confirm, it is conceivable and has been reported, that the Houthis may have received financial or other forms of compensation from China (such as Chinese-made military components) in exchange for allowing freedom of passage for China-affiliated vessels in the Red Sea.