>> Pearl Harbour and 9/11? (Both of which were smaller in relative terms than 7th October Curious how you're determining this? Unless I'm checking the wrong th

>> Pearl Harbour and 9/11? (Both of which were smaller in relative terms than 7th October Curious how you're determining this? Unless I'm checking the wrong thing both had higher numbers of deaths than Oct 7. Pearl Harbour I think is different from the other two as it occurred during a world war (albeit the US hadn't entered it yet) and was an attack on the military primarily. And if anything is to be learnt from the reaction to 9/11 it's that it was a total waste of life. Invade a country, destabilise the entire region leading to an explosion in terror attacks in the west, and then hand that country over to the Taliban a couple of decades later. Oh and find Bin Laden in a completely different country a decade after starting the war. I would say Afghanistan was disproportionate. Interestingly in 20 years of war there, there were less civilian casualties than just two years in Gaza. I think that tells us something about the proportionality of the current war. >> Should the response to such attacks even be proportionate? Yes, according to agreed international law. >> What is a proportionate way to respond I don't know the answer to that. But 50k+ dead civilians is disproportionate. Preventing aid from entering to the point of famine - disproportionate. Genocide - disproportionate. I think it's also critical to remember that, as despicable as Hamas actions were, they didn't come from nothing. That doesn't justify them, but it does help explain them. If you treat people worse that dogs for generations they might bite. >> I don't know what response Hamas expected but I suspect they did seek a very bloody one. No idea but my guess is they thought the hostages would help minimise the damage at least short term. It would be reasonable to assume that if you had innocent hostages in tunnels their government would be hesitant to bomb you from the skies. Sadly the Israeli government has shown they do not care about the hostages. The worst part of all of this is that the civilians killed in Gaza and the abandoned hostages are cared about so little by the people supposedly fighting 'for them'.