(National Interest) David Schenker - For the time being, it appears the Biden Administration will persist in its support for Israel's operations in Gaza. That's largely because after Oct. 7, Washington instinctively understood that Hamas had become a strategic problem for Israel. Absent a decisive setback in this war, Hamas will emerge - like Hizbullah in 2006 - with a "divine victory," and Gaza will revert to the situation on Oct. 6, with disastrous consequences for Israel's deterrent posture and an unsustainable crisis of confidence in Israel over the state's inability to defend its people. The Biden administration should learn the lesson of 2006. A bad ceasefire - a truce that leaves Hamas in place - will merely defer the next round of bloodletting. The writer, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, served as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.
2023-12-11 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive