Subject: Re: Tlaib censured
I agree that Israel needs to do something to recover its citizens, but I can't disagree more with the current plan. The fruit born from this approach is likely to opposite to the intended goal.

Again, that's just not true.

Israel's intended goal is to eliminate Hamas as an organization that has the capacity, resources, experienced personnel, and operational infrastructure to commit the type of atrocity that took place on 10/7. This approach is the "least bad" method of achieving that goal. Because Hamas is embedded within the civilian population, there is no way to accomplish this goal without having horrible levels of civilian casualties. But the military option is the one that's most likely to achieve it.

Additionally, the death count of innocents is unacceptably and immorally high. I also can't see how starving the population of food, water, medication, and electricity furthers the effort to recover hostages.

Recovering hostages isn't the primary goal. It's certainly an important goal, to be sure. But the primary goal is destroying everything that Hamas has that gives it the capability to perform the 10/7 attacks. Because of Hamas' actions in embedding itself into the civilian population, there's no way to do that without a high civilian death count.

I understand lamenting the high civilian death count - but you have to ask the next question. If Israel doesn't meaningfully try to destroy Hamas, what then? Is the result that Hamas' tactic of embedding itself among civilian works - that they're able to perpetrate the greatest atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and then be immune? That's a recipe for a never-ending string of 10/7's, over and over, until Israel falls. Not only from Hamas - if Gaza is a perfect "human shield" against reprisals, preventing Israel from routing any group that attacks them, then you can expect Iran (and possibly Russia) to flood that area with resources for all who want to bring the fight against Israel.

That's also an unacceptable outcome.

There's no magic third alternative. The IDF doesn't have superpowers, some incredible capability that would allow them to defeat the de facto government with a paramilitary force of tens of thousands that has spent nearly two decades building up its organization and infrastructure using "surgical strikes." To meaningfully degrade Hamas' capabilities requires boots on the ground with air support. As we have seen in conflict after conflict, no matter the belligerents, that always involves high levels of civilian deaths when the fighting is in urban areas.

There's no way to decimate Hamas without the civilian casualties. So do you really believe that Israel would ever choose not to decimate Hamas, despite the civilian casualties? Do you believe any country would choose not to decimate Hamas, if they were in that situation? Is that what you think Israel should do - refrain from destroying Hamas because of the civilian casualties?