This approach worked, at least partially, when breaches of the laws of war were relatively minor. However, in recent decades, murderous terrorist organizations used these rules to their advantage. Like Hamas did in southern Israel, they could massacre civilians and ignore the rules of war as they saw fit, then seeking shelter behind innocent civilians and enjoying the humanitarian sentiments of well-meaning people to shield themselves from retaliation.

Israel, having faced threats to its existence for most of its history, was repeatedly blamed for breaching international humanitarian law. Sometimes, unfortunately, these accusations were true. Throughout Israeli military history, there were regrettable atrocities, and many of them were punished. However, excessive demands for "humanitarian" treatment in war with organizations like Hamas served as a shield allowing such groups to arm themselves under the guise of humanitarian aid for innocents and refugees.

For years, Hamas launched rockets at Israel from densely populated areas, committing various atrocities. Yet, international pressure forced Israel to supply water, electricity, fuel, and food to Gaza's population for understandable reasons. However, Hamas used these resources to support its people, rearm, and limit every Israeli response due to the fear of "excessive" civilian casualties. In a sense, Israel is unpopular because it had to find ways to protect the lives of its own civilians when facing such groups. For many years, out of fear of becoming even more unpopular abroad, Israel provided water, electricity, fuel, and food to Gaza, limiting its military responses to prevent a humanitarian crisis. Regrettably, we believed that the cost would be tolerable. As a result of this mistake, at least 1,200 Israelis were brutally murdered, and more will be if Hamas is ever allowed to be supported again by the international community. For instance, sacks donated by generous, good-hearted Japanese people who wanted to help Palestinian refugees were used by Hamas to cover their current incursion into Israel. Some of the sandbags even had "a donation from the Japanese people to be distributed freely among Palestinian refugees" written on them. The goodness and generosity of people in Japan and around the world were used to further a murderous cause.

This misguided "humanitarianism," born out of the trauma of World War II, has also been a disservice to the Palestinian people and the residents of the Gaza Strip. It helped Hamas shield itself, recuperate, and rearm, condemning Gaza and the region to an unending cycle of fighting with temporary ceasefires in between. Many analysts in Japan, Europe, the United States, and even Israel, true to their justified abhorrence of war, believed that the Palestinian issue could only be solved through dialogue and peace agreements. In the long run, this is certainly true—Palestinian people deserve dignity, a good life, and self-determination like every other nation on Earth. However, recent events have shown that such noble intentions do not work with genocidal groups like Hamas, which aims to exterminate all Jews and many Arabs in Israel and will use any agreement or concession to advance this cause. These goals are clearly described in the Hamas Convention, much like Hitler's intentions in Mein Kampf. We need to read these documents to understand why diplomacy is futile with such organizations.

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