Hamas and Human Sacrifice
From Sam Harris
Hamas seeks to destroy Israel and uses hostages and human shields to manipulate public opinion and create division. The ongoing conflict is deeply rooted in cultural beliefs that glorify martyrdom, making true peace difficult to achieve. Any future negotiations must focus on defeating jihadism rather than temporary compromises.
9 Sep 2024
Perhaps the most astonishing lesson of World War Two is that, in the aftermath of total war and unconditional surrender, a hard reset of two very different cultures was possible. Judging from the Allied victory over Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, it certainly seems that one can bomb ideas—by obliterating many of the people who hold them. Kill a sufficient number of murderous lunatics, along with their most ardent admirers, and the offending ideas soon fall out of fashion. Nor is it invariably true that pounding a whole society into ruins will increase the enmity that occasioned the original conflict. Our seventy-five-year friendship with Germany and Japan—which, in the current context, appears to be some sort of double miracle—proves this.