The worst option except for all the others

The problem with international criticism of Israel's plan to occupy Gaza is that none of the critics can offer any viable alternative.

Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza is not a good one. It will cost lives, bleed resources, test morale, and place thousands of young Israelis in danger. Yet, it is still probably Israel’s best bad option.

There are no utopias in Middle Eastern politics, and even good policy options are rare. It is all about trade-offs.

The Israel-Hamas War is not a university seminar where pimply lefties can workshop “solutions” over fair-trade coffee. It is a place where the good options cost lives now, and the bad ones cost more lives for generations to come.

Israel’s experiment of withdrawing from Gaza in 2005, which included dismantling Jewish settlements and handing the territory over to the Palestinian Authority (PA), was supposed to bring peace. Instead, it brought Hamas rockets, tunnels, and finally, the October 7 pogrom.

For Israel to leave Gaza now without having accomplished its war goals of destroying Hamas and freeing all of its hostages, would be an even bigger mistake.

The international community, which is catch-all term for Western and Arab states whose leaders live in loop loop la la land, thinks that if Israel stopped fighting, Hamas would release the remaining Israeli hostages, and surrender power. It imagines Hamas will simply hand over Gaza’s keys to the PA, so that it can run Gaza with the same corruption and ineptitude it has shown in Ramallah. If that were a book plot, it would sit on the bookshop’s fantasy shelves.