The book of Exodus opens with a demographic boom among the Israelite population of Egypt in the decades following the death of Joseph; this population explosion, in fact, is what spurs Pharaoh to enslave the Israelites. Failing to stem the tide, Pharaoh then issues his genocidal decree to the midwives: drown all male Israelite children. The midwives’ refusal to comply is the first of many acts of heroism in this book, as Sarah Rindner writes:

[T]he fecundity and abundance of the beginning of Exodus is characterized in a way that [suggests it is] somewhat unseemly or even animalistic. Israelite fertility frightens and perhaps sickens the Egyptians. The Israelite population explosion seems somehow related to the Egyptian attempt to dehumanize the former through back-breaking labor. When the midwives Shifrah and Puah explain to Pharaoh why they are unable to clamp down on Israelite procreation, they say that Hebrew women’s reproductive powers are unstoppable; [the Hebrew phrase they employ is] usually translated as “because they [the Israelite women] are vigorous,” but [can be rendered more literally as] “because they are like animals.” . . .

Shifrah and Puah straddle the line between unbridled nature and conscious human choice and control. By profession, they are human intermediaries in the realm of teeming and unfettered nature. Pharaoh asks them to disrupt these natural processes by killing every boy that is born, but they resist by pointing to the uncontainable fecundity of the Hebrew women. In fact, their act of resistance is not a relinquishing of human responsibility in the face of nature run amok. Their standing up to Pharaoh represents precisely the opposite—it is a refusal to see human procreation in purely naturalistic, amoral terms. This is why the midwives are explicitly described as “fearing God.” For the midwives, awareness of God is a bulwark against undifferentiated masses and human anonymity.

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.