> The correct response should have been a measured hunting down of Hamas, increasing offensive attacks, and shoring up the wall.

I don't think most people quite appreciate the situation Israel was in on October 7th, or the initial response. People think of it as a terrorist attack - it wasn't just that, it was an invasion. An invasion that was ongoing for three days almost. Together with an invasion, rockets were fired at Israel throughout those days (and throughout the entire time until the ceasefire).

Israelis were glued to the TV for hours, as people were hiding in their homes while armed militants were searching them out. They were calling in to families, calling to news networks, as everyone watched them. (This was, among other things, a massive failure of the IDF's initial response, partially caused by a fairly successful attack on some of its forward bases.)

This was nothing less than a declaration of war. I don't think any country in the world, having been invaded by thousands of armed militants and being fired at, could do anything except strike back massively.

What's more, there were serious, concrete threats that the war would escalate. Instead of just having armed militants running around inside Israel while Israel was being shot at from inside Gaza, there were very credible threats that a multi-front war would start, which would be, at the very least, very difficult for Israel. There was probably little chance of Israel outright losing, but "a small chance we will all die" looms pretty large in your mind.

I think people in the West are just too far removed from being themselves in any physical danger from war, to really appreciate how you react.

And the easy way to see I'm right is that people in the West react exactly the same way when fighting wars. Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam!, if you think Israel is behaving differently than other countries did you're just unaware of any history.

I don't know if the initial or ongoing response is the "correct" one, but I still haven't heard anyone saying what Israel should've done differently, at least initially. The ongoing situation is more complicated, but almost any serious person agrees that destroying Hamas is critical (and completely justified) at this stage.

> The one thing that I think has changed between now and the last time there was a major conflict is that the internet exists. The news media is not the final arbiter of mass information. If someone, like you, challenges people by saying "it's complicated" or "those numbers are fake", I can easily point to wikipedia and a dearth of well respected and in depth research websites. It's a new world.

Firstly, there have been many conflicts since the Web existed, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, etc.

> People who have unconditional support of Israel are now finding themselves having this information repeatedly thrown in their face, causing them to topple off of the moral high ground they believed they held.

I think the media not being the "arbiter" of information doesn't make anybody more accurate, it makes everyone able to have their own version of the story.

Do you know how many people on Twitter are convinced by ridiculous propaganda? I can think of numerous examples, but my latest "favorite" is the nonsense of people looking at picture of released hostages, seeing them smile and wave (while still under captivity!), and decide that they were for sure treated well. I hope they were treated well! I really do. But to conclude something so stupid, as if people had never heard of coercion, is just... truly beyond me. Every day new arguments of this kind emerge online.

> Can you remember the last time the public was so largely outraged by Israel's actions? Did it ever have this tenor? Did western countries' support waver? If "young people" is your answer, then you are about to be blindsided.

Unfortunately, Israel almost always has this kind of criticism. It is almost never judged the same as other countries, in my opinion.

More importantly, some of this criticism started before Israel's response even began. People were calling for a ceasefire from Israel while the attack was ongoing. It's as if people already made up their mind about the situation, and nothing could change their opinion.