"The tragic fact remains that either way, thousands of Palestinian civilians have died, and thousands more will doubtless join them because of Hamas’s actions and what they forced Israel to do in justified self-defense."

Right. Yes, Hamas - through some sort of telepathic mind control - forces the Israeli fighter pilot to pull the trigger that drops the 900kg bunker-buster bomb that Hamas made the US supply, and Hamas made the ordinance workers load, that flattens the apartment complex and leaves a 12m crater. There were maybe dozens of civilians in that building, but the AI targeting system the IDF uses (creepily called 'The Gospel') designated it, and some IDF official arbitrarily decided that X number of civilians was 'acceptable' collateral. Maybe there were even Israeli hostages in that building. Oh well. Hamas made us do it.

It used to be that soldiers put on trial for committing war crime atrocities would try to use the, "I was just following orders" defense. But "Hamas made me do it" I guess is the new go-to in this conflict.

Of course, the Hamas terrorists probably say that, "Israel has left us no option..." too.

So really, this is the defense of a terrorist.

Let's respond to depravity with 25x the death and depravity...

But it's not really depravity I guess, because being ripped apart by air-dropped munitions from million-dollar fighter aircraft is apparently a very humane and civil way to be killed. It's fine folks, because when the IDF does it, they have weapons and backing from the US, and wear snazzy uniforms. It's all official looking and expensive hardware is used. This is mere 'collatoral damage'... not atrocities. I think that's how this works.

I'm glad people with this mentality aren't in charge of hostage negotiation for the local police department. Using the same logic, they'd lob grenades at the bank robber and his hostages until everyone is dead, then claim that the bank robber made them do it by 'using human shields' and then call it an act of 'justified self defense'.