“No More Half Measures.”

The appropriate response to terrorists like Hamas is a disproportionate one.

This scene from Breaking Bad, a show which holds a special place on my heart, is one of my favorites. Part of Breaking Bad’s brilliance was its insights into human nature. One of those insights, courtesy of “Mike Ermantraut” played by Jonathan Banks, is instructive in how to deal with Hamas. And how not to. It’s a simple premise really, though for some it is difficult to accept.

Here it is:

When you are faced with evil, half-measures don’t work Half-measures are what get more people killed.

The appropriate response to evil is a disproportionate one.

That might seem ugly but consider that when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, the United States entered a world war on two fronts that we finished by dropping the atomic bomb.

Not to take lives. To save lives.

By dissuading evil people from doing evil.

When we were attacked on 9/11, the United States launched a twenty year war against two countries. Proportionate? No. Appropriate? Absolutely.

Too many of us in the West have been lulled into a false sense of security by the creature comforts of our civilized society. The trouble is, we believe everyone else thinks like we do. That other people in other countries want the same things as Americans. This is a delusion. And a dangerous one.

Hamas does not want what we want neither does Hezbollah or Iran.

To fool yourself into thinking they do is the kind of infantilized, weak-mindedness, that let’s evil like Hamas flourish. While telling ourselves that we are being humane, we ignore the heinous crimes of inhuman animals like Hamas.

They are not people.

They are animals.

They are not deserving of mercy. Their victims — Israelis and Palestinians (as well as Americans, Germans, Dutch, and Thai people to name a few besides the Jews who were massacred) — deserve justice in the form of a fiery retribution so absolute, it eliminates the possibility of crimes perpetrated by the likes of Hamas (or Isis or Al Queda or the Taliban or Iran) never happen again.

The appropriate response to evil is a disproportionate one.

You hit Evil so hard it never gets up again.

Ever.

I hear a lot of talk from people about “cease-fires” and “there always being room for peace.”

This is naive.

There can only be peace when that which is trying to kill you and which seeks to sew destruction and death, is destroyed.

You don’t cut out part of the cancer and hope the rest of the disease gets the message. No. You eradicate it. Completely.

What is required of the rest of us claiming to be on the side of Good is to accept the terrible responsibility of doing what is both difficult, but necessary. To do so we must realize that all the blood that will be spilled falls squarely on the shoulders of the terrorists who committed the heinous acts of bloodshed and terror in the first place — Hamas.

Then, let those who are in the fight, do what needs to be done.

To the self-proclaimed peaceniks, or anyone quibbling about how other countries will react, or worse, some bullshit about de-colonization and it’s consequence, let me say this clearly: You are not being peaceful, you are not being humane or good people, you are being weak. And in fact, what you are accomplishing with that hypocritical virtue signaling and your hollow sloganeering is perpetuating and prolonging the slaughter of innocents. Whether you’re doing that willfully or unintentionally, I don’t care. In the end, want it comes down to is an unwillingness or an inability to do what is necessary. So, take to heart this important TV Life Lesson from the great Jonathan Banks in Breaking Bad:

“No more half measures. I won’t ever make that mistake again.”

Well, no more half-measures.

Hamas needs to go.

Afterwards, when no more Israeli babies — or Palestinian ones — are murdered by Hamas and the governments supporting them, then we can about cease-fires, peace, and humanity.