Israel requires a fresh approach with Palestine

The daring and complex military offensive by Hamas into Israel on October 7 has left in its devastating trail multiple lessons and dilemmas for the Jewish State. While Israel has immense military firepower to extract an overwhelming revenge against Hamas and allied Palestinian outfits in the Gaza Strip, the bigger challenge it faces is in the political and diplomatic arenas.

- Sreeram Chaulia

Executing an all-out war on Hamas is not going to once and for all resolve Israel's fundamental insecurity, which has a structural character. Israel cannot just hit back hard at Hamas and expect that it will bury the problem. The metaphor in Israeli national security circles of "mowing the grass", i.e. carrying out round after round of counterattacks to cut down radical Palestinian jihadist movements to size until they inevitably grow their shoots again, is a realistic reminder that there is no military solution per se to a persistent threat stemming from territorial and religious disputes fuelled by regional geopolitical rivalries.

Previous wars between Israel and Hamas in 2008-2009 and in 2014, did not put the matter to rest. The grass grew again after those deadly spells of fighting and today Israel finds itself having to mobilise once more to try and shave it off ever so finely.