Much (but not all) of the world was horrified by the surprise savage attack by Hamas against Israeli civilians, brutally killing over 1,400 Jewish men, women, children, and babies, and the taking of over 240 hostages, and Hamas proudly parading their depravity for all the world to see. This was the greatest massacre of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust.

However, world sympathy was short-lived when Israel began to fight back decisively and started to decimate the Hamas strongholds located mainly in civilian enclaves. The complaint was that too many Palestinian civilians were being killed. Apparently, the world may sympathize with Jewish deaths, but is absolutely mortified by Palestinian deaths. Also, the world powers do not know what Israel plans to do in Gaza after the fighting stops, if it does succeed in wiping out Hamas. There is, therefore, much clamor for an immediate ceasefire to stop the killing.

I have problems with this proposal. The first is that there is no precondition that all the hostages are to be released alive now. The second is, here also, there is no plan being offered as to what will happen after the ceasefire. Will Hamas still exist and be allowed to rearm and continue to commit more and greater havoc? And finally, who will govern Gaza in the future?

As it stands, a ceasefire now without these answers would mean a big victory for Hamas and Iran, a big defeat for the United States and the Western world, and a continued state of imminent threats to Israel.

Max Wisotsky
Highland Park