re: #139 Killgore Trout

When do you think Hamas would allow the Tel Aviv airport to reopen? I hate to be dismissive but allowing Hamas to launch rockets and tunnel into Israel as long as they please just isn’t a serious proposal.

He didn’t make that proposal, though.

Israel is, mostly, safe from attacks by Hamas. The rockets and mortars are largely ineffective—this is, again, not in the least bit an excuse for them, they are, each and every one, a war crime. The security walls and checkpoints have mostly stopped suicide bombers. It is extremely unlikely, as an Israeli, to die from a Hamas attack. About half as many Israelis have died in the current ground invasion as have died in the past five years or so.

The ‘terror tunnels’ are kind of an unknown quantity of threat, and an argument can be made they need to be sealed off, but it is already a very high price in Israeli casualties, not even looking at the Palestinian casualties.