So ya, Hamas would luv a ground invasion, and Israel would do well to avoid it. But the IDF doesn’t get to make that call. Hamas can continue rocketing Isreael until Israel is ‘forced’ into invasion. Even with a formidible military, a couple hundred thousand bees can do a lot of damage, and bees/hornets once enraged never back off and return to the nest. There’s a potential blood bath there for both sides, but one side mourns a single soldier and the other views the loss of dozens or hundred as the price that must be paid for dignity. Asymetry at work.

I’ve been thinking that the IDF is stuck in ‘conventional warfare’ tracks and hasn’t adapted to the real hardship that unconventional war/terrorism poses. I suspect that Israel isn’t prepared to pay any price, bear any burden to retake Gaza (or probably the same with the West Bank) and that leaves them very vulnerable to a Palestinian population of young people who see no future, no respect, and with utter hatred of Israel in their heads. Ultimately, a large population group with poor military infrastructure can overcome even the best conventional military force if they have people-numbers and hatred on their side – as Germany found out on the plains of western Russia in WWII.

“Accomodationist” isn’t a nice word, but when the future promises to be much worse than the present for your side, sometimes you have to change objectives and figure out how to coexist.