Just ahead of the Passover holiday, nearly 1,000 current and former Israel Air Force pilots and personnel published a letter demanding an end to the war for sake of hostage release. The letter was brief but bold: It argued that continuation of the war will not achieve its aims, endangers the lives of hostages, innocent civilians and soldiers, and that only a deal can bring the hostages back.

It’s heartening to think that the Israeli people are driving a movement against the war. But there’s a troubling element to this call to end it. If the hostages’ fate is the only argument for ending the military assault on Gaza, what happens if the government finally does reach a deal to release most or all of those remaining in captivity? Very little in the latest petitions suggests that the Israeli public wants to stop the war for its own sake; Israelis might seize on the call to “flatten Gaza” once “bring them home” is out of the way