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.

Israel’s goals of freeing the hostages and defeating Hamas (the latter necessary to prevent further hostage taking) are to some extent contradictory, since Yahya Sinwar, the ruler of the Gaza Strip, will only turn over hostages in exchange for concessions. But Jacob Nagel remains convinced that Jerusalem should continue to pursue both goals:

Only consistent military pressure on Hamas can lead to the hostages’ release, either through negotiation or military operation. There’s little chance of reaching a deal with Hamas using current approaches, including the latest Egyptian proposal. Israeli concessions would only encourage further pressure from Hamas.

There is no incentive for Hamas to agree to a deal, especially since it believes it can achieve its full objectives without one. Unfortunately, many contribute to this belief, mainly from outside of Israel, but also from within.

Recent months saw Israel mistakenly refraining from entering Rafah for several reasons. Initially, the main [reason was to try] to negotiate a deal with Hamas. However, as it became clear that Hamas was uninterested, and its only goal was to return to its situation before October 7—where Hamas and its leadership control Gaza, Israeli forces are out, and there are no changes in the borders—the deal didn’t mature.