To justify the continuation of the nearly two-year war in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked the specter of endless terror. He warned that if Israel does not “finish the job,” it will face attacks like those on October 7 “again and again and again.”
This framing presents the conflict as a binary choice: either total military victory over Hamas or a future of perpetual, repeated massacres. It is a powerful and fear-driven argument designed to rally support for the war by eliminating any middle ground.
This justification explicitly rejects the possibility of a political solution or a security arrangement that doesn’t involve the complete eradication of Hamas. It dismisses the idea that a Palestinian state, international peacekeepers, or a revitalized Palestinian Authority could provide security.
For a world weary of the conflict, this rhetoric sounds like a recipe for endless war, not a path to a conclusion. The mass walkout at the UN suggested that many leaders believe it is the war itself, and the lack of a political horizon, that is breeding the hatred that will lead to violence “again and again and again.”
