Israel has grown accustomed over decades to asking in wartime not only how the enemy can be defeated, but also how much consideration must be shown for the enemy’s civilian population. Attacks were postponed, targets were left un-struck, civilians were warned, and soldiers were exposed to additional risks. Behind this stood a moral standard that Israel can rightly be proud of. Yet October 7 compels us to ask an uncomfortable question: When does consideration become weakness, and when does a state begin paying for its morality with the lives of its own citizens and soldiers? That is precisely why the controversial documentary “NAZA” has occupied my thoughts. Not because I share its thesis that Israel has essentially abandoned all consideration for Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. But because it leads me to the opposite question: Has Israel perhaps shown far too much consideration for far too long? Not only militarily, but as a strategic concept: containing Hamas rather than destroying it, buying quiet rather than enforcing deterrence, accepting risks to ourselves in order to avoid escalation.
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