Friendly fire

In the Israel-Hamas war, the killing of hostages by friendly fire was always inevitable. And even the killing of three hostages while they were waving a white flag is not very surprising. War is hell. But when these things actually happen, then we may hope that bloodthirsty hawks may take a step back, looking for a better solution than mere vengeance and looking for a more long-term solution than just a few years of fragile security. So while it is somewhat sad to note that most of the world has quickly forgotten the horrors of the Hamas attack on Israel of October 7, the global outrage at a heavy-handed Israeli military response may lead to some good for both Israelis and Palestinians. If, on the other hand (and as may be more likely) it only leads to a simple ceasefire and prisoner exchange (an implicit victory for Hamas), then that would be highly unfortunate... but also in large part the fault of Netanyahu's mismanagement of the Israeli Government and the Israeli war effort. In short, the one certain lesson to learn from this tragic war is that both Palestinians and Israelis require new and better leadership.