Make sense.Make peace

I BELIEVE IN UNIVERSAL HUMAN WORTH, HUMAN RIGHTS of all people, natural rights, and international law-flawed, hypocritical, and ineffective as it can be, it's still a beacon.

- DAHLIA SCHEINDLIN

My values have long driven my support for peace, an end to Israeli occupation, equality, self-determination for Palestinians. That's still true, even though right-wingers in Israel assume that left-wingers will now admit that on Oct. 7, Hamas proved that Palestinians cannot be trusted, that there is truly no partner for peace. This is a strange argument, since no left-winger ever saw Hamas as a friend; Hamas was always an enemy of peace. Right-wingers also argue Oct. 7 proves that Hamas is embedded within Palestinian society-after all, once Hamas breached the barrier around Gaza, regular Palestinians joined in, and opinion polls among Palestinians show appalling levels of support for Hamas, especially since Israel's invasion.

These are terrible truths. Why has Hamas' strategy held appeal? Hamas has always championed military force to fight Israel rather than negotiations, promising it can win the release of prisoners and champion the Palestinian cause. But consider the path of negotiations: over decades, each round failed, for which each side bears some blame; in the meantime, Israeli occupation, settlements, and de facto annexation spread. The world largely moved on.