Weighing the evidence, considering all sides of an argument, looking at possible justifications for aberrant behavior; these are all concepts familiar to us as lawyers and they are useful, valuable practices in almost every case.

However you weigh it, the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the murder of whole families by fire and bullet was evil defined. These attacks differed in magnitude, but not in intent or purpose, from the “special actions” carried out by Nazi thugs during World War II, the Cambodian slaughter undertaken by the Pol Pot regime, or the more recent murders of innocents by ISIS fanatics.