What Would You Have Israel Do to Defend Itself?
The New York Times Opinion by David Brooks March 24, 2024

Old article but most still ring true, in this terror war.... including regarding Hezbollah

Extracts:
  • Israeli strategy
But on a larger political and strategic level, we’d have to conclude that the Israeli strategy has real problems

Global public opinion is moving decisively against Israel. Furthermore, Israeli tactics may,
1. be reducing Gaza to an ungovernable hellscape that will require further Israeli occupation
2. and produce more terrorist groups for years

  • Hamas' strategy
Hamas’s strategy is pure evil but it is based on an understanding of how the events on the ground will play out in the political world
As the leaders of Hamas watch Israeli allies grow more critical of Jerusalem, they must know their strategy is working

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The key weakness of the Israeli strategy has always been that it is aimed at defeating Hamas militarily without addressing Palestinian grievances and without paying enough attention to the wider consequences

So we’re back to the original question:
1. Is there a way to defeat Hamas with far fewer civilian deaths?
2. Is there a way to fight the war that won’t leave Israel isolated?

So where are we?
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The tragic conclusion there is no magical alternative military strategy

As Raphael Cohen, the director of the strategy and doctrine program at the RAND Corporation, wrote in Foreign Policy:
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“If the international community wants Israel to change strategies in Gaza then it should offer a viable alternative strategy to Israel’s announced goal of destroying Hamas in the strip

And right now, that alternate strategy simply does not exist”