ユヴァル・ノア・ハラリの第一声
（最初の声明）
Opinion | The Hamas horror is also a lesson on the price of populism - The Washington Post
（詳論）
最初の声明では、「ポピュリスト」ネタニヤフの失政を糾弾しつつ、ハマス掃討が先決であり、その後はじめてイスラエルは、国内の民主主義と国外の平和を実現しようと努力するはずだ、としている。
後の詳論では、懸念されるガザ地区の人道危機にも触れ（夜になったガザ地区、映像を見ると、電気の供給が止められ真っ暗であるのに加え、時折爆音が響いている）、戦況をエスカレートさせて１９４８年に始まった中東戦争の帰結を蒸し返そうとする両陣営の原理主義を「外部の力（external forces）」によって抑圧しなければならない、と呼び掛けている。この「外部の力」とは”a coalition of the willing – ranging from the US and the EU to Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority”のことであり、これがハマス掃討とガザ地区の完全非武装化に責任を持つべきだ、とのこと。
文面には、この間のガザ地区市民との関係構築に失敗したことの無念さがにじみ出ている。イスラエルの左派勢力を中心とする歩み寄りの努力がすべて水泡に帰したこと、そして、ガザ地区（およびパレスチナ自治区全体）の当局者、市民自身も、イスラエル政府の無策（ガザ地区の「放置」または「力と権力利害による均衡」）に乗じてハマスの実効支配に自らを委ねてしまったこと、これらへの絶望とやり場のない怒りが、たとえば次の文に記されている。
During the 1990s Oslo peace process, Israel gave peace a chance. I know that from the viewpoint of Palestinians and some outside observers, Israeli peace offers were insufficient and arrogant, but it was still the most generous offer Israel has ever made. During that peace process, Israel handed partial control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority. The outcome for Israelis was the worst terror campaign they had experienced until then. Israelis are still haunted by memories of daily life in the early 2000s, with buses and restaurants bombed every day. That terror campaign killed not only hundreds of Israeli civilians, but also the peace process and the Israeli left. Maybe Israel’s peace offer wasn’t generous enough. But was terrorism the only possible response?
After the failure of the peace process, Israel’s next experiment in Gaza was disengagement. In the mid-2000s, Israel unilaterally retreated from the entire Gaza Strip, dismantled all settlements there and returned to the internationally recognised pre-1967 border. True, it continued to impose a partial blockade on the Gaza Strip and to occupy the West Bank. But the withdrawal from Gaza was still a very significant Israeli step, and Israelis waited anxiously to see what the result of that experiment would be. The remnants of the Israeli left hoped that the Palestinians would make an honest attempt to turn Gaza into a prosperous and peaceful city state, a Middle Eastern Singapore, showing to the world and to the Israeli right what the Palestinians could do when given the opportunity to govern themselves.
Sure, it is difficult to build a Singapore under a partial blockade. But an honest attempt could still have been made, in which case there would have been greater pressure on the Israeli government from both foreign powers and the Israeli public to remove the blockade from Gaza and to reach an honourable deal about the West Bank as well. Instead, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and turned it into a terrorist base from which repeated attacks were launched on Israeli civilians. Another experiment ended in failure. （強調は引用者）
