Hamas may be increasingly perceived as a weak horse by the Palestinians. That doesn’t mean they are dropping their hatred of Israel. But over time – perhaps a great deal of time – there is at least a possibility that they will see support for terrorism as a losing game that only leads to their own suffering.

[I included this short observation because it gets to a point I’ve been making the last several weeks. Until this war, the US and other Western countries have shielded Hamas, Gaza, and the Palestinians generally from the price of starting wars. Not only does this remove the disincentives for such provocations, it bolstered Hamas’ standing as a manipulator of the powerful on the world stage among Gazans and Palestinians in the West Bank. The only way to separate Gazans from Hamas after nearly two decades of this incentive structure is to utterly demolish it. And even then, it will not go away easily, but the alternative is to keep bolstering Hamas’ standing. — Ed]