The Hebrew Bible generally refers to Jews by some variation of the word Israel. (The word Jew does not appear as such until the later biblical books.) Yet, occasionally, Jews are designated as Hebrews. Yitzhaq Feder notes an interesting pattern:

[T]he bulk of occurrences of this term in the Bible appear in the speech of Egyptians and Philistines in reference to the Israelites, and a more thorough survey of these occurrences suggests that this term was indeed a derogatory racial slur. . . . The most thorough exposition of this approach is the literary critic Meir Sternberg’s epic work Hebrews between Cultures (1999), which argues that “Hebrew is a codeword for the Bible’s in-group as misrepresented from the outside by the arch-foreigner, the [Egyptian].”

This raises another question, says Feder: “If Hebrew is a derogatory term, why do we find it used by Israelites, by the narrator, and even by God?” His answer: the Torah uses the word in the book of Exodus for its dramatic effect, highlighting the reversal of roles; it is the lowly Hebrew slaves who, through divine intervention, will come to be treated with fear and deference by their once-contemptuous Egyptian masters.

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.