Israel/Palestine

The government of Israel, and enough of its population to sustain the effort, are of the view that Hamas must be destroyed as an armed body capable of governance. I agree with that objective, and in fact fail to understand why anyone outside Hamas would urge an outcome which did leave Hamas capable of governing Gaza and conducting further attacks of any scale on Israel. Ceasefires simply kick the can down the road, and if Hamas emerges from this with any gain to show, a ceasefire guarantees repetition of what commenced this bout of bloodletting, and further Israeli military action in consequence. That those deaths wouldn't occur tomorrow, or next week, is something, certainly, but they will just be postponed, if things continue as usual in the longstanding conflict.

Hamas cannot preserve itself by military means; its sole weapon with any potential impact at all is the revulsion of people at the bystanders killed owing to their refusal to accept their circumstances. You might as well ask Sinwar how many dead Palestinians are enough to secure his objective of killing or driving out the Jews of Israel. It's a question worth asking. Would you consider surrender by Hamas an acceptable end to the killing? What do you think Hamas ought to do to end the killing?