The decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to have the Israeli military capture Gaza City and then occupy all of Gaza is a bad idea.

In fact, it is the worst possible idea — except for all the alternatives.

These include letting Hamas keep power in Gaza endlessly and effectively consigning the remaining 20 living hostages to more torture and certain death.

Another even worse possibility is that soft-headed Western leaders join the antisemites at the United Nations and reward Hamas’ terror campaign by making Gaza the centerpiece of a Palestinian state.

Facing a global lineup of Jew haters, there is no option for Netanyahu that would gain wide support, let alone universal backing.

Israel’s isolation is astounding in light of the fact that we are nearing the second anniversary of the Hamas invasion that killed more Jews in one day than on any day since the Holocaust.

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And yet Israel is widely condemned for trying to win the war Hamas started.

An obvious conclusion is that the present course of fruitless negotiations with Hamas about a cease-fire is unsustainable.

Last month, just days after the White House had expressed optimism about a deal, President Trump got it exactly right when Hamas pulled out of the negotiations.

“It was too bad, Hamas didn’t really want to make a deal. I think they want to die and it’s very, very bad,” the president told reporters, adding: “It got to a point where you’re going to have to finish the job,” a phrase widely seen as offering support for Israel to expand its military offensive, as Netanyahu (pictured) now aims to do.

Asked about full Israeli occupation of Gaza, Trump also said: “I really can’t say. It is going to be pretty much up to Israel.”

‘Last card we have left’

An aide told Axios that the president, who had recently offered criticism of Netanyahu, was deeply moved by the Hamas video of Israeli hostage, 24-year-old Evyatar David, seen being forced to dig what is likely his own grave.

“It influenced the president, and he is going to let the Israelis do what they need to do,” the official said.

That’s the only sensible position because Hamas has shown repeatedly it isn’t interested in signing a cease-fire and hostage deal that Israel can accept.

Against that reality, it’s hard to argue with Netanyahu’s conclusion that only added military pressure can change the terrorists’ calculations.

An aide to Netanyahu put it this way in a media statement: “We are not willing to remain in the current limbo and we are not willing to surrender to Hamas’ demands — so essentially only one option is left, to take a drastic step. This is the last card we have left.”

Another unsustainable factor is the jerry-rigged humanitarian aid system that has seen Hamas gunmen hijack the vast majority of aid trucks meant for Gaza’s civilians, many of whom reportedly suffer from malnutrition and some are said to be starving.

Those aid trucks are crucial, but as the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy notes, a recent UN report concluded “that between May 19 and Aug. 5, more than 2,600 trucks carrying humanitarian aid crossed from Israel into Gaza.”

However, only 300 of these trucks reached their intended destinations in Gaza, with the vast majority, totaling some 2,309 trucks, “intercepted and looted along their delivery routes.”

‘They want casualties’

True to cowardly form, the UN report did not distinguish between the parties responsible for the thefts, noting only that the aid was stolen by “either armed actors or hungry people.”

“Armed actors” is a euphemism for Hamas, but the UN is too cowardly to say even that.

Despite the thefts, Israel is repeatedly accused of intentionally starving women and children.

Somebody might be intentionally starving the civilians, but it’s not Israel.

In fact, the whole aid system stems from the ridiculous assertion that it is up to Israel to feed and house the civilians whose suffering is the direct result of Hamas’ invasion and its evil defense strategy of using its own people as human shields.

As Netanyahu said, “They want people to be civilian casualties. They want a starvation policy that they themselves are trying to put into being. And we’re doing everything to reverse that.”

Sadly, much of the western media is indistinguishable from Al Jazeera in parroting Hamas and blaming Israel for everything.

The disgusting trend reached a gutter low when The New York Times published a sickening photo on the top of the front page of its July 25th edition of a mother holding a tiny, sickly-looking baby.

The caption claimed “Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, about 18 months, with his mother, Hedaya al-Mutawaq, who said he was born healthy but was recently diagnosed with severe malnutrition.”

The caption added that “A doctor said the number of children dying of malnutrition in Gaza had risen sharply.”

Under the caption, the story headline declared: “Young, Old and Sick Starve to Death in Gaza: ‘There Is Nothing’”

The point was unmistakable: Israel is starving children to death.

After an outcry, five days later, the Times ran what it called an editor’s note that upended the claims of the initial photo.

The note read: “This article has been updated to include information about Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, a child in Gaza suffering from severe malnutrition.”

It continued: “After publication of the article, The Times learned from his doctor that Mohammed also had pre-existing health problems.”

‘War crime’

The Times has yet to explain why it failed to confirm the facts before it rushed to print what was effectively a blood libel against Israel.

Soft-selling the egregious lapse as needing merely an “editor’s note” is the sort of “fix” that is appropriate when a person’s middle initial is wrong, not when the error is crucial both to the photo and the story about starvation the photo supposedly illustrates.

The fact that Israel is up against not only Hamas but many western governments and their leftist media outlets helps explain why the Security Cabinet quickly approved Netanyahu’s plan for the takeover of Gaza City.

The resolution said residents will have until Oct. 7 to evacuate.

The choice of that ominous date was hardly an accident.

Predictably, Hamas condemned the Netanyahu plan as a “full-fledged war crime” and promised it would exact a “high cost.”

Germany also declared its opposition by saying it would impose a partial arms embargo on Israel.

That may or may not matter, depending on Israel’s next steps and that of regional nations.

Netanyahu said he aims to turn Gaza over to unspecified “Arab forces” after Hamas is finally defeated.

That’s easier said than done, and it may be that he was merely calling the Arab states’ bluff.

So far, none have volunteered for the job.

They claim to care about the Palestinians, but not enough to actually do anything to help them when given the chance.

The Arab states, like most of the world, would rather just condemn Israel.