Now, put these recommendations in the context of the Israeli Defense Forces entering Gaza. The IDF is not an all-volunteer force like the U.S. Armed Forces but consists mainly of conscripts with varying levels of military training and combat experience. Keep in mind, too, that, militarily, Israel could simply level Gaza and not risk a single Israeli life. Instead, Israel will undertake one of the hardest military tasks: attacking into a defense that Hamas has been preparing for years. To do so, the Israeli government is asking Israelis, after one of the worst atrocities against its people in living memory, to put their children at risk to protect the lives of the population of Gaza, many of whom voted Hamas into power. Too much of the commentary by national security elites and others fails to appreciate how Israel has chosen the more difficult and, I think, humane path. We need to appreciate the truly herculean effort involved in the decision by Israel to launch this ground invasion.

We also need to be clear-eyed about who is to blame when civilians are inevitably killed in operations in Gaza. In his analysis of unconventional warfare, Paul Ramsey, an eminent scholar of the just-war tradition, argued that when an unconventional force chooses to fight in the midst of a populace and use civilians as a shield, it shares the blame when innocent people are inadvertently wounded or killed in the course of the fighting. This is not meant to excuse the loss of innocent life that will result from IDF operations in Gaza. I hope, as do all people of good will, that the IDF can discriminate between Hamas terrorists and innocent civilians. We need to acknowledge, however, that Israel has decided against a much more indiscriminate response. By doing so, it has already distinguished itself from those who massacred its people.

[Indeed. The calculus has changed this time, though. The shocking and disgusting Hamas terror massacre in southern Israel, combined with their demands for Israel’s annihilation, have removed much of the moral doubt that otherwise would go into an invasion against a heavily populated urban area. Hamas has left no doubt that they will continue to slaughter unarmed men, women, and children as often as necessary and on the same scale or worse until Israel is destroyed, which means Israel has no choice now but to destroy Hamas first. — Ed]