The Bulwark's Mona Charen did an excellent interview with Israeli journalist Amir Tibon (who himself with his family survived the October 7 attack on their kibbutz). I was struck by his insistence that all of the choices for a way out of this are terrible. This is a real lesson in how important diplomacy can be to help generate better choices (https://www.thebulwark.com/podcast-episode/terrible-choices-for-israel-2/).
At the core of the just war premise is that Israel intends to eliminate the threat responsible for the attack. If Israel is pursuing this war with other aims those should surely be stated and evaluated against the 7/10 attack. I fear that much of what you point out about the conduct of this war points towards the elimination of Hamas not actually being an organizing principle. It appears that the destruction of Gaza in itself is a goal being pursued here. I hope this fear is wrong and your sensible observations can be heeded widely in the IDF.
Great piece this morning! A UN peace keeping force, similar to the one from 1993-1996 after the Rwandan Civil War, will be required because neither the Palestinians (in their physically divided pieces of land) nor the Israelis have the required manpower, structures, and moral authority to supervise and enforce all the steps needed once the bombing stops and Netanyahu is replaced.
The Bulwark's Mona Charen did an excellent interview with Israeli journalist Amir Tibon (who himself with his family survived the October 7 attack on their kibbutz). I was struck by his insistence that all of the choices for a way out of this are terrible. This is a real lesson in how important diplomacy can be to help generate better choices (https://www.thebulwark.com/podcast-episode/terrible-choices-for-israel-2/).
At the core of the just war premise is that Israel intends to eliminate the threat responsible for the attack. If Israel is pursuing this war with other aims those should surely be stated and evaluated against the 7/10 attack. I fear that much of what you point out about the conduct of this war points towards the elimination of Hamas not actually being an organizing principle. It appears that the destruction of Gaza in itself is a goal being pursued here. I hope this fear is wrong and your sensible observations can be heeded widely in the IDF.
Totally agree, David! Thank you for putting a complex situation so eloquently.
Great piece this morning! A UN peace keeping force, similar to the one from 1993-1996 after the Rwandan Civil War, will be required because neither the Palestinians (in their physically divided pieces of land) nor the Israelis have the required manpower, structures, and moral authority to supervise and enforce all the steps needed once the bombing stops and Netanyahu is replaced.