Subject: Re: Hamas launches mass attacks on Israel
Politically, I don't know if there is an answer short of genocide. One side will probably have to wipe out the other.

Or there may simply never be an "answer" - that some unsatisfactory, horrible inconclusive muddle will continue on for decades and decades. That, I think, is what the less optimistic folks in Israel (and among their supporters) have resigned themselves to. There is no way out, but people can stay kind of where they are for a very long time.

At this point in time, no one in the region can stand up to Israel. So either Hamas is stupid (unlikely), or they're gambling on Israel to blunder into a bad situation (like we did in Iraq), and either waste vast sums of money, or become a pariah that nations would hesitate to support.

Or they simply miscalculated. They clearly wanted to strike a blow that would derail the status quo: a slow, gradual drift towards Israel reconciling and normalizing relations with the Saudi sphere of countries. But they might not have anticipated being "successful" enough in hurting Israel that they would galvanize the country into annihilating Hamas while also committing such atrocities that Israel can probably avoid becoming a pariah nation while doing so.