The real audience for Israel’s campaign is not only the people whose names are already on the list.
It is the people considering joining the next massacre.
Deterrence depends upon creating consequences that an enemy believes are real.
If a terrorist thinks he can cross into Israel, murder civilians, return home, survive long enough for international pressure to produce a ceasefire and then live safely under a political agreement, the deterrent effect is weak.
Israel is attempting to establish a very different calculation:
Participate in the slaughter of Israeli civilians and your responsibility does not expire when the war ends.
Perhaps not next week.
Perhaps not next year.
But Israel will remember.
That was part of the message after Munich, and it is clearly part of the message now.