Anyone who professes to have the best interests of either Israelis or Palestinians at heart should work toward a short conflict and a long-lasting peace.
Even now, the full scale of the horror visited on Israel by Hamas terrorists last weekend is hard to fathom. A brief scan of the news yields images of mangled bodies and slaughtered innocents; footage of terrified young people, gunned down or carted off in captivity at a music festival; witness accounts of elderly and disabled victims, indiscriminately killed. A massacre at the kibbutz of Kfar Aza included young children.
Dark days lie ahead. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli troops are preparing to cross into Gaza, facing a bloody, street-to-street fight. Their stated goal is to destroy Hamas as a fighting force. Any nations that have the best interests of either Israelis or Palestinians at heart ought to help Israel to complete that task swiftly — and to find a longer-lasting solution once the fighting has ceased.
That begins with the US. President Joe Biden set the right tone in his address on Tuesday, decrying the Hamas attack as “pure, unadulterated evil.” He vowed the US would “make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself and respond to this attack,” and he warned Iran and proxies such as Hezbollah against widening the conflict.
The US should continue backing up those words with actions. At least one carrier battle group will soon be stationed in the region; another may join it. The Pentagon is expediting shipments of bombs, ammunition and missile interceptors to the Israeli military. Congress should set aside its internal squabbles and move fast to approve further aid.