When not showing video and photographs taken by journalists embedded with Hamas forces, news outlets are showing an endless stream of images of the devastation in Gaza, which in turn are used as fodder for those arguing that Israel has “done enough” and must work for a ceasefire. One of the more reasonable versions of this argument has been made by the journalist Shadi Hamid, first on the website formerly known as Twitter and then in the Washington Post. Robert Satloff refutes it, beginning with Hamid’s reliance on faulty comparisons with the U.S. campaign against Islamic State:

Comparisons between Gaza and the U.S. experience in Syria and Iraq are false and misleading. Distance and time matter. The U.S. was under no time pressure to complete the mission in a huge, faraway place and did not have CNN embedded with the enemy, so it could operate a certain way.

By contrast, Israel is securing its own border after a horrific next-door attack, with the global clock ticking, under the glare of international media. No one ever threatened the U.S. with demands for a ceasefire; thousands of Islamic State-sympathizers did not march in world capitals. So if Israel uses more bombs per day than U.S., that’s a function of time and space; if you told Israelis the world would let them finish the job without interference, that there was no race to achieve success before global patience ran out, their tactics may be different.

Then you make the straw-man argument that Israel is “likely to further radicalize more Palestinians.” Israel doesn’t say its goal is to eliminate radicalism; it’s to deny Hamas territorial control, political rule, and military capacity. For that, nothing succeeds like success. . . . If you truly care for the future of Palestinians in Gaza and potential for Israel-Palestinian peace, let alone Israeli national-security interests, then the only thing worse than the current fighting is fighting that ends with Hamas still in power.

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.