The Jerusalem Post June 1, 2025
The idea that a genocidal terror group can survive a war it started by choice, from a position of unprovoked aggression, is a dangerous precedent.

Hamas’s survival will be celebrated by its backers — from Tehran to Beirut to Doha — as a modern miracle:
a militant group that faced the full force of a nation-state and lived.

This is the symbolic power Hamas craves.
It would send a clear signal to Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iranian proxies across the region, and radical groups worldwide: terrorism works.

Most dangerously, it would affirm to the Islamic regime in Iran that its decades-long strategy of proxy warfare against Israel — its so-called “ring of fire” — is working — that all it needs to do is keep going. Hamas will prepare for the next war.

If Hamas survives,
1. it will not rebuild Gaza. It will rebuild tunnels.
2. It will not return hostages. It will capture more.
3. And it will not seek peace. It will prepare for the next war.

This is not speculation. This is what they say. This is what they’ve always done.

War is always tragic. But some wars are necessary.
The just purpose of war is not vengeance — it is justice, deterrence, and the restoration of peace.

But peace is not possible with an armed, fanatical regime in Gaza that seeks Israel's / your destruction and views the murder of civilians as a divine duty.
Wars of self-defense must end with unmistakable clarity.