"One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this."--Omar El Akkad, Award-winning novelist, author and journalist, three weeks after the attacks began against Gaza

The other legitimate question which must be asked is how much is too much? What has happened to Gaza is much more than simple retaliation for the October 7th attack. This looks very much like a war of aggression, aimed at invasion and conquest, and an almost deliberate attempt to bring the "two state solution" talk to an end, since the independence of Gaza is critical to that means of achieving peace, if it can ever be achieved.

It would also not surprise me to learn that most Israelis are not in favor of what is happening. This is not what is expected from a people who endured the kind of persecution that occurred as a result of the Holocaust. The persecuted Jewish survivors of the Holocaust had more than just their own people in mind when they declared "Never again." This was the desire for the whole world.

It might still be possible to salvage some good will, and recover some image of peace from this, depending on how it is handled from here on out. That might result if there is an immediate cease fire, and more than just rudimentary reparations are part of the restoration and solution to the problem, along with genuine efforts to make peace work, not just the tit for tat series of wars that have characterized the middle east since before the second world war.