Israel’s principal stated objective is to destroy Hamas. It has analogized this to the Trump-era American objective of destroying ISIS. There is something to this comparison. Contrary to his extravagant rhetoric, Trump did not actually destroy ISIS — it still exists and is a menace wherever it rears its head. Trump did, however, eviscerate ISIS’s capacity to hold territory as a de facto sovereign. This was a significant achievement. (Whether it was accomplished constitutionally is an interesting question.) Yet we shouldn’t overstate the achievement, because (a) terrorist organizations are more effective in pursuing their core competencies of insurgency and sneak attacks than in trying to govern territory, and (b) ISIS is a rebel sect broken off from al-Qaeda, which remains a major challenge, so ISIS would inevitably either fold back into al-Qaeda or rebrand as some new terrorist group — since what catalyzes jihad is the regional predominance of sharia-supremacist ideology, not any particular, transient organization.

The situation with Hamas is similar, and in some ways more vexing. …

More to the point, Hamas is not Israel’s main opponent. It is, instead, a proxy of Iran that enjoys effective alliances with Erdogan’s regime in Turkey (our “NATO ally,” which continues threatening to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza) and Qatar (our “major non-NATO ally,” which is a Muslim Brotherhood regime and thus a lifeline for Hamas, the Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch).

[Perhaps. But Israel can do one thing in Gaza, which is to restore the pricing signals on starting wars and discredit Hamas as an organization through its destruction in place. If Hamas leadership flees, that’s all the better for those purposes. The longer game is against Iran, which the Biden administration wants to keep placating rather than treat as an opponent. — Ed]