NewsNation’s Leland Vittert provides expert analysis and insight into the Israel-Hamas war in the Oct. 16 edition of War Notes.

(NewsNation) — Now that we are entering week two of this war, there are three lanes: public opinion turning against Israel, where the Arabs are and Hamas sympathizers in the United States.

This is going to be a long, long war with no clear end and no clear way to get there.

As we predicted, Iran backs down.

Reuters notes, “Iran said on Sunday that if Israel does not attack it, its interests or its citizens, then Iran’s armed forces would not engage militarily with Israel. ‘Iran’s armed forces will not engage, provided that the Israeli apartheid does not dare to attack Iran, its interests, and nationals. The resistance front can defend itself,’ Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York told Reuters.”

The international and American media have had no problem saying that about ISIS. There was no “both sides” argument to ISIS. America, among others, bombed them back to the Stone Age, inflicting significant civilian collateral damage, and nobody cared. Why should there be a “both sides” argument to Hamas? The people hurt the most by Hamas are innocent Palestinians. There is nothing noble about their cause and what they do to women, gay people, Jews, Christians or political enemies. We should also rightly call out the people who don’t see it that way.

The battle between Israel and Hamas must be defined as a battle between good and evil. It is that simple. The battle between a medieval group of barbarians that inflict their brutality on both Jews and Arabs versus a peace-loving people who want to be left alone. It is that simple.

By example after example, Hamas’s actions give up any right for them to be treated as a legitimate military or fighting force. By blocking civilian evacuations, they give up any right to be treated as a military. If you want protections from the Geneva Conventions, you have to live by it, but Hamas wants it both ways. They don’t live by it because they take civilian hostages, use human shields and use hospitals as weapon depots, but yet they demand protections from the Conventions. It doesn’t work that way.

Now we are in the black hole of information. Israeli raids into Gaza began Friday night local time and have continued through the weekend. Expect a black hole of verifiable reporting. Israel has closed off much of its southern region to reporters and journalists. This is pretty common, but it appears they are taking more liberties than usual in restricting journalists’ access to the battlefield.

Weather and other factors likely played a role in delaying the ground invasion. That said, Israel gains nothing by telegraphing their tactical moves. This is not the road to Baghdad circa 2003.

On the other side, we continue to see Hamas exert control over the media, even international media, inside Gaza. We expected and predicted this. Information out of Gaza even from “official” sounding sources like “health” and “ministry” is nothing more than Hamas propaganda. Is there civilian suffering in Gaza? Absolutely. However, an immediate end of Israel’s assault would not end that suffering. Hamas could end that suffering tomorrow. Though, in fact, Hamas appears to be trying to increase that suffering by restricting civilians from escaping.

For anybody demanding Israeli restraint, why does Hamas get to have it both ways? They get to attack civilians in Israel and then hide behind human shields. What exactly should Israel be doing?

Pew Research Center’s polling on Hamas support in Gaza is a few years old but indicates that 39 percent of the Muslim population believes suicide bombing can often be justified to defend Islam. While lots of Gazans don’t support Hamas, a lot do — remember all the cheering crowds a week ago Saturday! Hamas was popularly elected. By far the best thing that could happen to peace-loving Gazans is Israel eliminating Hamas. That said, Israel faces a lot more than just 30,000 Hamas fighters in Gaza.

We have long said that Israel is held to a double standard, especially the one of “proportionality.” A British author lays the counterargument out well.

The Wall Street Journal lays out some pretty interesting lanes to explore regarding pressure on Egypt. This includes, but is not limited to, why the rest of the Arab (Muslim) world is not offering to help. The Muslim world spans from Morocco to Indonesia yet none are offering to help Egypt set up camps or are offering a safe haven to Palestinians.

One reason they won’t do this is because Hamas will include their own people inside the category of “civilians.” The Moroccan king or Kuwaitis will talk a big game about Palestinians but will never follow through. The Egyptians, as this Wall Street Journal opinion points out, are very scared of Hamas considering their roots in the Muslim Brotherhood and past Muslim Brotherhood attacks. Al-Isis deposed a member of the Brotherhood in a bloodless military coup.

Where are the “moderate Arabs”? President of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Zayed couldn’t wait to do all the fun parts of diplomacy and get accolades for normalizing relations with Israel. Well, now is the time for that to mean something, and he is awfully quiet.

Looking at the ground truth about hostages, we need to fact-check that President Biden is “working like hell”. Really? Where are the threats to Iran? Where are the threats to Qatar? There aren’t any. Where is the freezing of Qatari assets until they kick out the leader of Hamas? The video of Hamas using kids and babies as human shields deserves real coverage.

Hamas is playing the long game, and its leadership has a significant advantage. Hamas and Iran don’t care about the lives of the civilian population, nor do they care about the lives of their own fighters. This is diametrically opposed to the Israeli viewpoint.

Very little thought has been given by Israel about how this ends.

Ronen Bergman of the New York Times is out with a story this morning saying, “It remains uncertain what Israel will do with Gaza City, Hamas’s stronghold and the enclave’s largest urban center, if it captures it, or what exactly Israeli officials mean when they describe the destruction of Hamas’s leadership. Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, is a large social movement as well as a militia that is deeply embedded within Gazan society.”

The piece goes on: “A second military spokesman said that the army was particularly focused on killing Yahya Sinwar, the top Hamas official whose offices, like those of the Hamas government, are in Gaza City. Israel holds Mr. Sinwar responsible for the atrocities against Israelis last Saturday.”

When in doubt, read higher up in the story that (Hamas) “is a large social movement as well as a militia that is deeply embedded within Gazan society.”

This isn’t ISIS with 5,000 radicals who want to go back to the eighth-century lifestyle with Mad Max pickups. This is a large organization with hundreds of thousands of supporters in Gaza and a large military structure and organization. As well, they have help from the Kuwaitis, Qataris, Turks and Iranians. Killing one man (or 100 members of top leadership) solves the problem of justice and revenge, but it doesn’t come close to achieving the stated goal of eliminating Hamas.

Federico, my executive producer, raised this issue a few days ago that “Israel is walking into a trap.” 

Yes, they are walking into a trap, but they have no choice. Nothing Israel has ever done to reach peace or a detente with Hamas has ever worked. Any gestures of goodwill have been returned in the form of rockets, and last week, with a massacre. For those saying the Palestinians deserve a state, Israel has offered them one a number of times. Arafat turned down roughly 98 percent of what he was asking for. Why would Israel ever again negotiate in good faith after last week’s attacks? 

Be careful about the rhetoric from Iran via Barak Ravid’s reporting at Axios. I don’t question the veracity of the reporting, but Iran has a history of such rhetoric and not following through. Most notably, the world is already doing Iran’s dirty work for them. The coverage of Israel’s Gaza counterattack is already drawing worldwide attention. That’s exactly what Iran wants — suddenly, Iran appears to be on the side of the oppressed — never mind Iran’s continued oppression of its own people and violence, including hanging gay people. If, for example, Hezbollah launches an unprovoked attack on Israel, Iran loses all that.

The more interesting part of the Iran story is why they continue getting a pass beating women and killing gay people by so many who claim to be interested in the rights of the oppressed. What is the real Iran? What is the real Qatar?

I covered the Syrian gas attack; that was and remains one of the single most evil things ever done in modern warfare. Assad kills his own people. It’s pretty rich for members of Congress to now blame Israel for it.

Even the liberal “Economist” is shocked by the brutality of Hamas’s rampage, saying, “Article 51 of the United Nations charter gives states the right of self-defense against armed attack, provided that, according to customary international law, the force they use is necessary and proportionate. Proportionality does not mean symmetry in the type of weapons used or the number of casualties caused. It means that the defending state can use as much force as is needed to address the threat—and no more.”

With that in mind, this is what they are fighting against.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of NewsNation.