It's painful to witness the suffering of so many innocents, on both sides. It's even more painful when you're left feeling powerless to stop it.

One of the most powerful statements of Israel's pain was Golda Meir's haunting saying to the Arab world, "We can forgive you for killing our children. But we will *never* forgive you for forcing our children to kill yours."

Israel's governments have often done things I vehemently disagreed with. The current bunch in power far more so than any in history.

Having said that, the current calls for "cease fire" are a dog whistle call for the ultimate destruction of Israel. And here is why.

All cease fires with Hamas have led to their rearming with ever greater destructive power that they then used to target Israeli cities and towns, firing from within, under, or next to civilian facilities such as schools, mosques, hospitals, and UN locations. In fact, there *was* a cease fire in place on Oct 6, which didn't deter Hamas in the last from launching the horrific and inhuman attack of Oct 7.

A cease fire makes sense if it's in your own best interest militarily, or, better, if it allows negotiation pursuing a lasting peace. Neither is the case now.

Hamas has repeatedly and clearly stated over and over that not only would they, but that they will stage such attacks a second, third, fourth, and forever more such attacks until Israel is destroyed.

When your enemy makes such genocidal statements, the *only* rational response is to believe them, and then, believing them, do anything necessary to remove permanently their ability to do so.

That's the reason Israel is forced to continue attacking Hamas (and Palestinian Islamic Jihad) until they lose their ability to attack and rear for ever more genocidal attacks against Israeli civilians.

The true tragedy here is that these terrorist organizations are knowingly and cynically using the Palestinian civilians as human shields, stating openly that they're willing to sacrifice 100,000 or more of their own brothers and sisters as "martyrs" to the cause of destroying Israel.

As incredibly painful as it is, this is exactly why Israel cannot turn the current pause to a cease fire.