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The more I think about it, the more it is clear to me that there is no great way to handle this crisis. Israel can't just march in and put a flag in the center and say "war's over, pick a leader". The USA tried that in Afghanistan, and it worked for a while, but the old regime was just waiting for their chance. If a regime doesn't care about its populace at all, what can you even do to it to draw it out and kill it? It's like natural selection created the most toxic paradigm possible. I think it will be very hard to starve Hamas to death without starving everyone else to death, too, unless you "ethnically cleanse" the populace by moving them into camps where you can ensure they are all fed safely.
Weirdly modern war might make peace less likely. I’ve been thinking about this theory recently. Many past major compromises, treaties, peace deals etc all benefit from having a well known, somewhat trusted individual who can both negotiate and then sell it to their own people after. Who negotiated peace after the Revolutionary War? Ben Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay. Many such cases, a definite Great Man Theory thing. But Israel and other modern states are in the habit of killing any famous leaders who begin to pop up before they get famous. Thus, no one left to bargain with. Afghanistan, Iraq too.
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You can't do that either; Hamas will be in the camps.
If they're in camps, then the guards control what comes in and what goes out. Basically harmless except for his ideology, and I now see the problem you've pointed out. It's even worse than I imagined writing that comment. It seems there really are no ways for Israel to solve the problem that would be acceptable to anyone involved or anyone watching from afar.
Try not rounding up the civilian population into camps, or shooting people rushing forward for food aid because they're starving. It's amazing how not being stormtroopers helps shift the views of the people on the other side.
Yes, I said stormtroopers. I don't think the IDF is behaving in an honest fashion. I'm hearing news reports on our national broadcaster every morning about what's going on in Gaza. Unless you want to convince me every single one of the people, the doctors, the volunteers, the journalists, the UN observers, interviewed on those reports is secretly a Hamas mole, horrible things are going on and Israel is doing them.
I don't have a problem with people being against camps or shooting people. But I do have a problem with that when no alternative is brought up. The "ceasefire now" folks totally miss that all of this cycle will just repeat when the next terrorist attack happens, and the previous equilibrium with the checkpoints, the rocket attacks, and the kids throwing rocks at the checkpoints was not a stable one. What is your take on what should happen with Israel and Gaza?
The mistake is thinking this is a bug, rather than a feature of this way of thinking for these people. I don't think I'm being overly cynical when I say that most self-described Palestinian supporters don't want peace, they want a war where Hamas is winning. "Ceasefire now" is only a slogan that gets brought up when Israel has the military advantage.
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They tried that. It resulted in a constant series of rocket attacks topped by the 10/7 invasion.
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