If it wants to survive, Israel surely must annihilate Hamas, this ever more venomous, maniacal Islamic group of terrorists misruling a next-door neighbor, Gaza. But should Hamas’s proud, strong, enabling boss Iran also be a target with the United States participating in its demise as a world hazard on its way to nuclear weaponry? Even with Hamas gone for good, an untethered Iran would still have Hezbollah to boss around and the means of forging new Hamas-style, Palestinian invaders with civilization the final loser.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — I regret to inform you that this is a column about nothing, because that is what Congress is doing this week. Even with a horrific war raging in the Middle East, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and a House without a speaker for the first time in American history, the House and Senate on Tuesday did nothing.

I don’t understand the stripe of Americans whose first response to Hamas’ recent attack on Israel is “yeah, but ….” Hundreds of attendees at a music festival murdered. Children and elderly people taken hostage. Civilians shot dead in the streets. When it comes to war there are no angels, but there are demons, and what Hamas did on Saturday represents the latter — full stop.

The stories and video are chilling and horrific. Armed men roaming through an Israeli music festival calculatedly shooting civilians at point-blank range before looting their personal effects.

When Pamela Anderson attended the latest Paris Fashion Week completely makeup-free, the 56-year-old created an online frenzy.

Fifty years ago, almost to the day in 1973, Egyptian and Syrian forces invaded Israel in a surprise attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur. Not only were many Israelis unprepared because they were in synagogue or otherwise marking the solemn fast day, but Israeli intelligence agencies had failed to take seriously the threat of an attack by Egypt, Israel’s largest neighbor and foe.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ gloves are officially off.

The biggest surprise in Hamas’s massive attack on Israel is that it was a surprise. The operation was of unprecedented scale, involving thousands of personnel and pieces of equipment, from hang gliders to bulldozers and rockets. Such an effort demands weeks if not months of preparation, and all of it took place under the nose of an Israeli intelligence service that has a deserved reputation as one of the most effective in the world.

Perhaps the biggest development in water over the last three decades has been the change in attitude among consumers about their liquid assets. After repeated droughts punctuated by history-making deluges, Californians appear more open than ever to embracing reuse of stormwater, wastewater and seawater — as long as we can be certain that it is clean and safe to drink.

It took nearly three years, but reality has finally intruded upon the Biden administration’s border fantasies. Thank two Republican governors for the long overdue wake-up call.

Nearly four years into America’s learning-loss crisis, perhaps the biggest challenge facing the country’s schools is a basic one: getting students to show up. Rates of absenteeism have surged since the start of the pandemic, across nearly all regions, income levels and age groups. School leaders need to act now to solve the problem, or risk seeing millions of students lose any chance of recovery.

A common perception among many Californians is that substance abuse is a chief cause of people losing their housing and living on the streets. But research debunks this myth.

It’s difficult to summon much sympathy for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who lost his dream job Tuesday when eight Republican dissidents turned on him. Although the Bakersfield Republican did the right thing last week in supporting a measure to avert a government shutdown that received bipartisan support, his record before then is less worthy of admiration.