Konstantin Kisin Exposes Dave Smith’s Weakest Israel Argument

Dave Smith went on Triggernometry with Konstantin Kisin and got pressed on one of the hardest questions in the Israel-Hamas debate: after October 7th, what exactly was Israel supposed to do?

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In this reaction, I break down the exchange between Dave Smith and Konstantin Kisin over Gaza, Hamas, October 7th, Israeli self-defense, targeted assassinations, special operations, civilian casualties, aid, and whether Israel’s response should have been treated as a “police action” instead of a war.

Dave argues that Israel should have handled Hamas more like a counterterrorism or policing problem — using targeted assassinations, surveillance, arrests, and special operations instead of a large-scale military campaign. But Konstantin pushes back with the obvious question: how do you “police” tens of thousands of armed Hamas jihadists in a tiny, densely packed territory filled with tunnels, IEDs, anti-tank missiles, snipers, and hostages?

The most important part of this debate is moral responsibility. Konstantin argues that October 7th was a unique category of violence because Hamas deliberately targeted civilians, raped women, murdered children, kidnapped hostages, and dragged Israel into a war that any country would have been forced to answer. Dave tries to compare Gaza to Native American reservations and other historical cases, but Konstantin keeps bringing the conversation back to the practical reality: Israel cannot live next to a militarized terrorist army willing to repeat October 7th.

I also give my reaction to Dave Smith’s anti-Zionist framing, the “occupation” argument, the Native American comparison, the Russia-Ukraine analogy, humanitarian aid, Hamas’s responsibility for Gaza’s suffering, and why Konstantin and the Triggernometry team completely shredded Dave’s argument live.

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