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“For the Israeli hostages being held incommunicado in Gaza under the most horrific conditions, the ICJ’s ruling is tantamount to a death sentence, or at the very least an indefinite prolongation of their agony.

“For the people of Israel, the ICJ has decreed that they must live under the perpetual shadow of terrorism and genocide.  For the people of Gaza, the ICJ offers only the dismal prospect of a reinstatement of Hamas’s tyranny and the degradation, brutality, poverty and fear that are its bitter fruits.

“For the world at large, the ICJ has dealt a devastating blow to international law and the system that was so carefully constructed after World War II to preserve international peace and security, and risks a breakdown in that system and a reversion to international anarchy and bloodshed.

“Israel has taken more precautions than any other country fighting a war in an urban setting to avoid harm to civilians.  But there is no gentle way of dealing with the butchers and rapists of Hamas.  Their capacity for murder and mayhem needs to be destroyed, root and branch.  No democratic country faced with similar circumstances would disempower itself in the face of terrorists, or should call on Israel to do so.”