Leave it to the French. Plato gave us philosopher kings. Slovenia gave us philosopher clown Slavoj Zizek. But the French have given us a celebrity philosopher, by the name of Bernard-Henri Levy, normally known by his acronym, BHL. So, if one does not take BHL very seriously as a thinker, his self-promotion and inherited wealth suggests that we are right to do so.
"First, the release of all hostages." As much as one loathes being the bearer of ill tidings, there are in all probability, few, if any hostages still alive. Why else would Hamas now be so reticent to release more hostages, when they previously did so, but for the fact that they have none--at least, none alive--to release. Anyone who prefaces his recommendations with this condition is either lying (to us or himself) or abominably misinformed. I agree that there is no viable alternative to a complete military victory, but waiting to institute the final offensive until "all hostages" are freed is merely to wait forever. I harken back to the edays of WW II for a comparison. I do not recall the Allies waiting for Hitler to release the hostages they held i France, Belgium, The Low Countries, et al. before mounting any offensives. Nor did we wait for the Japanese to release their Chinese and Korean "hostages" before we engaged them in armed combat in Asia and killed thousands of Pacific Islanders. We did not wait for the evacuation of the Filipino "hostages" in Luzon or Manila, nor the civilian residents of Okinawa before we dropped 16" shells, 1,000 pound fragmentation bombs and napalm all over them in order to kill their Japanese occupiers. Come to think of it, I believe that The Allied invasion of Normandy was begun without notice to any of the French "hostages" of the Germans who militarily occupied that territory. By consensus count, that invasion killed around 20,000 non-combatant, civilian residents of coastal France. For the cabal in charge to now insist that the Israelis cease combat against their military foes for the sake of the "innocent Gazans" (who, let us remember voted overwhelmingly to make Hamas their official government!) is ridiculous and hypocritical. By that measure, The Allies should have spared the millions of Germans they killed on the theory that it was only "The Nazis" we could legitimately target. Poppycock. This war is no different than every other war; armies get to kill whoever stands in the way of victory, including civilians, and as long as it is not primarily thier intent to kill civilians, non-combatant casualties are simply a sad fact of armed conflict and the law of war.
"First, the release of all hostages." As much as one loathes being the bearer of ill tidings, there are in all probability, few, if any hostages still alive. Why else would Hamas now be so reticent to release more hostages, when they previously did so, but for the fact that they have none--at least, none alive--to release. Anyone who prefaces his recommendations with this condition is either lying (to us or himself) or abominably misinformed. I agree that there is no viable alternative to a complete military victory, but waiting to institute the final offensive until "all hostages" are freed is merely to wait forever. I harken back to the edays of WW II for a comparison. I do not recall the Allies waiting for Hitler to release the hostages they held i France, Belgium, The Low Countries, et al. before mounting any offensives. Nor did we wait for the Japanese to release their Chinese and Korean "hostages" before we engaged them in armed combat in Asia and killed thousands of Pacific Islanders. We did not wait for the evacuation of the Filipino "hostages" in Luzon or Manila, nor the civilian residents of Okinawa before we dropped 16" shells, 1,000 pound fragmentation bombs and napalm all over them in order to kill their Japanese occupiers. Come to think of it, I believe that The Allied invasion of Normandy was begun without notice to any of the French "hostages" of the Germans who militarily occupied that territory. By consensus count, that invasion killed around 20,000 non-combatant, civilian residents of coastal France. For the cabal in charge to now insist that the Israelis cease combat against their military foes for the sake of the "innocent Gazans" (who, let us remember voted overwhelmingly to make Hamas their official government!) is ridiculous and hypocritical. By that measure, The Allies should have spared the millions of Germans they killed on the theory that it was only "The Nazis" we could legitimately target. Poppycock. This war is no different than every other war; armies get to kill whoever stands in the way of victory, including civilians, and as long as it is not primarily thier intent to kill civilians, non-combatant casualties are simply a sad fact of armed conflict and the law of war.