I envy those who know exactly how Hamas can be stopped without any more killing, because I don’t.
There are those who see a nonviolent way forward in Gaza right now: A cease-fire, an exchange of prisoners for hostages, a UN protectorate. I envy them, whatever clear answer they might have to how Israel should respond to the massacre of more than 1,400 Israelis and the kidnapping of more than 200 others by a fundamentalist terrorist organization that rules over and hides among an impoverished civilian population of 2 million people. I envy those who know exactly how Hamas can be stopped without any more killing, any more suffering, for any more people in Israel and Gaza.
Because I don’t.
I have dedicated much of my professional life to seeking peaceful change in this conflict, trying to listen to and understand Israelis and Palestinians and find ways to work toward peace or justice or coexistence or mutual understanding or anything better than what there is now. For eight years, starting in 1996, I worked for Seeds of Peace in Jerusalem, promoting peaceful conflict resolution with hundreds of young Palestinians and Israelis, their families, and their communities. I’ve spent the years since researching, writing, and teaching about Israeli-Palestinian peace-building. So many people whom I love and admire are now caught in this nightmare, including Vivian Silver, a 74-year-old Israeli peace activist who disappeared from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 and is presumed to have been kidnapped, and the families of numerous friends in Gaza. I see no way out of the nightmare so long as Hamas continues to rule the Gaza Strip, and no viable way to remove it from power without an Israeli ground offensive.
I’ve read some thoughtful pieces explaining why a ground offensive is a terrible idea. I agree. A ground offensive will inevitably add more dead and wounded and bereaved Israelis and Palestinians to the already unbearable tallies of the unspeakable Hamas killing spree and the Israeli bombardment of Gaza that has killed more than 3,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Even if Israel takes every possible precaution to protect civilian lives in Gaza—and the U.S. government must continue to pressure the Israeli government to that end—more innocent people there will be killed, harmed, and displaced. Hamas has no doubt prepared fortifications, traps, ambushes—it has had years to plan for its chance to capture and kill IDF soldiers on its territory. Hezbollah may use an Israeli ground offensive as a pretext to widen the circle of death and destruction to northern Israel and southern Lebanon, if not beyond.
