It's too bad for Israel that Robert Paul Wolff is not its leader

Despite the disclaimers he offers, this would have been a more humane and more effective response to the October 7 atrocities:

Leaving aside what Israel should have done 50 years ago or 30 years ago or even 10 years ago or one year ago, what could it have done on October 8 in response to the attacks? I do not think there was ever the slightest possibility that Israel would do any of these things, but it could have and here is what I say.

First, they could have mobilized their military and paid attention to their intelligence services to make sure that such attacks did not happen again. Second, they could have worked as hard as they could to carry out a hostage swap, releasing as many of their prisoners as they needed to to get back the hostages. Third, Israel could have stopped supporting Hamas by green lighting transfers of funds to the Hamas operatives in Gaza from Qatar and elsewhere. Fourth, Israel could have launched a full-scale effort to support the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Fifth, Israel could have ordered its legendary security forces to start carrying out targeted assassinations of Hamas leaders, in Iran, Qatar, and anywhere else they could be found. They could make it clear that this was not a knee-jerk response to the attack but a full-scale assault on Hamas from the top down that would continue so long as there was anywhere in the world a Hamas leader who was still alive. Sixth, Israel could have launched constant Secret Service attacks on Hamas leaders in Gaza, after the hostages had been returned. Seventh, Israel could have pulled some of the settlements in the West Bank back into Israel and created the genuine possibility of a real Palestinian state. Finally, as part of this effort, Netanyahu could have kicked the extreme right wing parties out of his government and struck a deal with the centrist parties which included keeping him out of jail, this being his price for all of the above.

As I say, there was never the slightest possibility that the Israeli government would doing any of these things but they could have and it would have saved 20,000 or more Palestinian lives, gained them the immediate and undying support of the world community, and actually strengthened Israel and made it more secure.