Israel occupied West Bank? Yes, but they let the Palestinian Authority run it. Israel occupied Gaza? Yes, but then they removed every Jew by force and let Hamas run it. No, what Hamas and its friends find intolerable is not Israel’s borders, but its existence.

In 2015 a married Muslim couple shot up the San Bernardino, California Regional Center during a Christmas party, killing 14 and wounding 24. They were killed by police, leaving their child orphaned. The man, a swimming pool inspector, was born in the US but radicalized. He went to Saudi Arabia to find an equally radicalized wife who also believed that non-Muslims should not be converted but simply exterminated.

The San Bernardino killers were members not of a religion but of a death cult, similar to Thugee. The British wiped out this cult from India. The members strangled strangers, stole their goods, and threw their bodies down wells. This did nothing for public safety, or for water quality.

The San Bernardino killers did not object to what those at the Christmas party were doing – they objected to their very existence. They could be appeased only by gunfire. Reality isn’t always pleasant, but it is always reality. Hamas and its friends can be appeased only by death, ours or theirs. They are the modern version of Thuggee. The only question is: Do we have the courage of the Brits to take appropriate action?