If you are endorsing Israel's Gaza assault by declaring that Israel "has the right to defend itself", then you're also endorsing the Oct. 7th attack. If Israel can slaughter civilians in the name of "defending itself", then Palestinians can too. They were ethnically cleansed in 1948 and have been occupied since 1967. Israel has refused to end the occupation and rejected the only diplomatic solution with international -- including PLO, Hamas and Arab states - support: an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, and creation of a Palestinian state there. (A huge compromise for Palestinians in 22% of their ancestral land). On Oct. 6th, Israeli forces and settlers had already killed 200 Palestinians this year alone (adding to a toll of tens of thousands since 1948). Occupied people have the right to resist military occupation. Israel had the right to defend itself on Oct. 7th as Palestinian militants attacked it. But it's not Oct. 7th anymore. It's more than one month later, and Israel has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians, including 4,650+ children. Israel has no right to commit mass murder in the territory it's illegally occupying. Occupiers don't have the right to defend their occupation; they only have the obligation to end it. Which also happens to be the best way that Israel could defend its long-term security, along with everybody else's -- who have just as much of a right to security and self-defense.