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Regime Change, Israeli-Style

(American Purpose) Robert Satloff - Israel has defined its war aims as the destruction of Hamas - of Hamas' political leadership, its military capability, its administrative capacity, its control of Gaza; everything. The war triggered by Hamas' barbaric attacks on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 will be the first zero-sum conflict in the Arab-Israeli arena since 1948. What lies ahead will be different than every conflict in the memory of current policymakers. This would be "regime change," Israeli-style. In the past 15 years, since Hamas took control of Gaza in a violent, bloody coup - not, as some have mistakenly written, in elections - there have been a series of violent rounds between them and Israel. Thousands of Hamas rockets have landed inside Israeli cities, towns and villages, terrorizing millions. But Israel's goal was never to destroy Hamas, just to periodically "mow the grass," as Israeli defense officials often said. All that changed on Oct. 7. The enormity, the audacity, and the depravity of what Hamas did - butchering more than 1,300 civilians in a way not experienced by Jews since the darkest days of the Holocaust - changed the rules of the game. It was the rudest of awakenings, opening eyes to the almost incomprehensible realization that while they were engaged in what they thought was a conflict defined by clear rules and boundaries, the enemy was readying itself for a diabolical, bloodthirsty massacre. For Israelis, whose national pastime is to avoid being taken for a sucker, the old rules of "limited war" are gone. In their place is Israel's adoption since of "regime change" as a goal of war. One should not discount the overpowering sense of national mission that flows from Oct. 7, leaving Israel apparently undeterred by the inevitability of battlefield losses, setbacks and failures, as it pursues the fight to finish off Hamas for good. The writer is executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2023-10-27 00:00:00
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