There is a moral distinction between a pogrom and a war of self-defense. All military actions are not the same; all civilian deaths are tragic, but one must make moral distinctions between purpose and conduct. The Nazi invasion of neighboring countries and extermination campaign differed fundamentally from the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. One sought to exterminate Jews; the other to defend victims.

Russia’s invasion of and war crimes in Ukraine are not morally equivalent to Ukraine’s war of self-defense. If you think the United States’ participation in World War II and the Union’s cause in the Civil War constituted “just wars,” despite the tragic death of millions of civilians, then, at some level, you must understand that the sides in such conflicts are not morally interchangeable.

Mature adults should be able to distinguish between genocidal wars and legitimate wars of self-defense, which tragically but inevitably result in civilian casualties. Moreover, how those campaigns are conducted matters. In its war to destroy Hamas and prevent further mass atrocities, Israel has warned Gaza residents, allowed time to evacuate, permitted humanitarian aid and did not purposely target civilians, as Hamas did. It has, in other words, complied with its obligations under the law of war. Hamas, in lobbing rockets at, massacring and kidnapping civilians, has committed war crimes.

Calling for a cease–fire in wars of self-defense (e.g., Ukraine, Israel) consigns the victims to ongoing terror, if not extermination. Ukraine and Israel have been pressured to cease fighting, but it is the aggressors who must renounce violence.

Proportionality is not a matter of counting bodies on both sides. According to international law, the rule of proportionality requires that the anticipated incidental loss of human life and damage to civilian objects should not be “excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage” expected from the destruction of a military objective. Israel will try to avoid civilian casualties, but Hamas makes civilian deaths virtually impossible to avoid when it hides command centers under hospitals, digs tunnels under populated areas and uses homes to store weapons. Prohibiting Israel from defending itself because civilian deaths will occur would apply a standard that no other country must live up to. It amounts to demanding Israelis be pristine moral victims.

Hamas, not Israel, is the occupying power. “Free Palestine” suggests Israel occupies Gaza. Israel withdrew in totality in 2005. As noted, Hamas is solely responsible for running up the death toll by surrounding civilians with caches of weapons and embedding military operations within civilian neighborhoods. Hamas steals aid money and converts whatever material comes into Gaza into weapons, necessitating a blockade. That has turned Gaza into one of the poorest, most desperate places on the planet. Those who insist a colonial model apply to Israel (utterly inapplicable to Israel as a whole, given the Jewish people’s origin in the land of Israel, their ethnic identity and history of repression) should understand: Hamas is the power inflicting untold misery on Gazans.

Hamas, a terrorist organization, is not a reliable source of information. Some people took umbrage when President Biden said casualty figures from Hamas were not reliable, but the administration is right: We cannot rely on information from Hamas-controlled sources regarding civilian deaths and injuries. Hamas is a propagandistic, murderous regime that is in the business of dehumanizing Israel, sacrificing Gazans, lying about its own war crimes and seeking the destruction of Israel and its inhabitants (“from the river to the sea”). We do not take Moscow’s account of casualties seriously; neither should we put credence in Hamas’s statements, even if styled as “Gaza Health Ministry” reports.

The Israeli coalition government has failed. That’s even more reason to support the Israeli people. The Netanyahu government has failed on every level (constitutionally, strategically, morally). Even in the wake of the horror, it has failed to provide moral or material support to survivors and respond to the needs of the families of people kidnapped by Hamas and the displaced residents of southern Israel, according to Israeli rabbis, news media, families, political figures and relief groups. (Families with U.S. connections have repeatedly praised the U.S. administration for professional, responsible and humane responses to their pleas for help.) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to infuriate the public with his refusal to take responsibility for the greatest Jewish death toll since the Holocaust.

Simply put, the Netanyahu government is reviled within Israel. (About 80 percent hold Netanyahu responsible for Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.) A great network of volunteers, including many of the groups and individuals who weeks ago marched against judicial “reform,” is tending to orphans, helping to relocate people from the south, attending funerals and supplying devastated communities with shelter.

In short, the Netanyahu government is not Israel; Israel is not the government. Israelis now have another reason to object to the Israeli government’s conduct and rhetoric. The Israeli people — who include Israeli Arabs and Bedouins — more than ever deserve our support. When the popular pro-democracy movement turns to replacing Netanyahu with a more decent, democratic and effective government, it will need international support.

The day after matters. I was heartbroken last Friday night at a D.C. synagogue to hear the father of a kidnapped daughter and son-in-law say we need to think about what happens after the fighting stops. The moral decency and bravery of this man flattened me. He is right.

After the war, the disgraced Netanyahu government almost certainly will fall from power. A massive humanitarian effort for Gaza will become essential, and the Palestinian Authority will need to rid itself of corruption and prepare to represent the Palestinians’ real interests.

Though it seems inconceivable, a peace process with both short-term goals (improved lives for the Palestinian people) and long-term aims (a two-state solution in whatever form possible) must be restarted. Defeating Hamas is a precondition to a serious, renewed peace effort. If Americans want an independent Palestinian state, they should favor elimination of Hamas, which stands in opposition to any peace deal.

Distinguished people of the week

I will let them speak for themselves.

I confess: As a proud graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, I thought a book detailing the scandalous beginnings of archrival Stanford would be a hoot. Richard White’s “Who Killed Jane Stanford?: A Gilded Age Tale of Murder, Deceit, Spirits, and the Birth of a University” certainly is that. But it is also a mystery thriller, a tale of San Francisco police corruption, an account of virulent racism in California against Chinese immigrants, a granular look at academic politics and an insightful story about railroads’ domination of California politics.

Along the way, you get a colorful description of the turn-of-the-century “spiritualism” movement and the yellow journalism that flourished in California. Most of all, it’s an evergreen reminder: People and institutions are much more complex than we often believe.

All in all, a good read. (And, yes: Go, Bears!)

Every Wednesday at noon, I host a live Q&A with readers. Read a transcript of this week’s Q&A, or submit a question for the next one.

Guest: Will MAGAs be ejected from the Republican Party? Will the Republican Party ever give up the ghost and split?

Jennifer Rubin: Unless and until the GOP suffers repeated, substantial defeats, there is little reason for change. When they get wiped out at the polls over and over again, a counter-MAGA movement can arise, one that can either reform the party from within or abandon the Republican Party and form a new center-right party.