Zack Beauchamp thinks the current Israeli campaign is unfocused and ultimately impossible. He suggests that the government should give up the massive air bombardment and rely on probing commando raids to capture or kill the Hamas leadership and free the hostages. The alternative of wiping out Hamas altogether begs the question of what happens next; on that point, the government lacks any kind of viable plan. Is he right?
It is true that limiting the scope of the campaign avoids the question of who runs Gaza when the war is over. It is also true that doing so will result in a Hamas recovery within, at most, a few years. It is a slightly more intense version of the usual Netanyahu approach to “cutting the grass.”
I doubt the Israeli public will tolerate the yard guy tactic this time. But how does the story end if the war isn’t limited? I will address that in my next post.