Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded with fury last week to international criticism of his decision to send troops back into Gaza and occupy it, insisting that the Jewish state was defending itself the way any nation must in "a war of civilization over barbarism.”

Wednesday’s murder of two young Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington indeed offered a timely reminder of the threat that Jews and Israelis face wherever they are. After Hamas conducted one of the most heinous terrorist attacks in history in 2023, any country would and should have responded as Israel did — sending troops to crush the perpetrators and retrieve the 250 hostages Hamas had seized. That’s why the backing Netanyahu received at the time was unconditional, from his own people and Western governments alike.

But a year and seven months after the Oct. 7 attack, it’s become inconceivable to describe the continued razing of Gaza as a justifiable war of self-defense. More war can only perpetuate the cycle of violence that the operation to eliminate Hamas was designed to end. According to a U.S. estimate toward the end of the last administration, Hamas recruited as many new fighters as it had lost in the fighting — and there is no reason to believe that has changed since or will in future.