Hezbollah Syria Iran were decisively defeated. Why not Hamas?

It’s complicated and heartbreaking. And it’s a subject of intense debate.

Examining root causes can help us understand and deal with challenging situations.

We can say that two things caused October 7: Giving away Gaza. And not instituting the death penalty for terrorists.

Giving away Gaza enabled Hamas to take it over, and then to plan and implement the October 7 attack.

Not using the death penalty for terrorists, motivated Hamas to take hostages, in order to trade them for imprisoned terrorists.

It’s possible that there was another motivation for taking hostages; namely to use them as human shields. And indeed that is why Israel hasn’t smashed Hamas full force — because they don’t want to harm the hostages.

Nevertheless, Hamas has used the hostages to free many terrorists. This seems to have been a major motivation for the October 7 kidnappings.

And now we are dealing with a bitter dilemma. On the one hand, we want to redeem the hostages. On the other hand, we want to eradicate Hamas, in order protect Israel.

Years ago, the Lubavitcher Rebbe warned Israel to not give away land, because of the danger. Giving away land to foreign entities would “open the land before them.” And it did.

And I remember reading, that he advised Israel to institute the death penalty for terrorists. Otherwise, it would create big problems. And it did.

At any rate, the lessons for the future are clear: Don’t give away land. And (once the war in Gaza is over), institute the death penalty for the October 7 terrorists.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe was wise and prophetic.

And he reassured us, that Redemption with Moshiach is imminent.

May it happen very soon.