“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… "

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche's quote seems an apt one to memorialise today's ceasefire in Gaza. 

Hamas was empowered by Netanyahu's Israel in order (said Netanyahu) to divide Palestinian power. On October 7 a Hamas mob overran slipshod Israeli barriers to rape, butcher and burn 1200 innocent souls and kidnap another 250. And then Netanyahu's Israel began what it said was a battle to eliminate Hamas.

With more signing up daily to join Hamas than can possibly have been eliminated — and Hamas's leader promising ever more atrocities to replicate the "miracle" (his word) of October 7— it seems that the battle to eliminate, or even subdue, Hamas is lost. But in those 471 days of bombings, air strikes and savagery, so too might be the battle for Israel's own soul.

As the Middle East's even remotely individualistic liberal democracy, that could be the biggest loss.