In article in one of Israel’s most popular newspapers Zhi Hauser laments that Israel should have gone all the way in Gaza back in 2014, that Israel should have intervened in Israel to prevent the Russians propping up Assad, because that allowed the strengthening of Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border and he also regrets that Israel’s current campaign against Iran didn’t start earlier, because between the 12 day war between Israel and Iran in 2025 and now Iran suppressed protests against its governments. He claims a very large number of protesters were killed.

It’s the same refrain we have been hearing for years, while Israel routinely bombs almost all of its neighbours it still thinks it shows too much restraint. There is always a clamor for more, always for reasons of security, and never is the reflection made:

What if it is our never ending violence that makes Israel’s situation so unsafe? From incremental burst, with short, violent incursions, the constant threat of aerial bombardment, the assassinations of so many prominent figures in the region, the settler violence in the West Bank and to Israel’s current horrific policies that have turned Gaza into a worse hell many of us could ever have imagined.

No, the solution for Israel is always more violence. And if violence doesn’t work it can only mean it wasn’t violent enough.