The ground invasion of Gaza has begun. According to the IDF spokesman, Israel’s aims are limited to “deal[ing] a heavy blow to the Hamas terror organization, to strengthen Israel’s deterrence, and to create a better security situation for those living around the Gaza Strip that will be maintained for the long term.” Of course, in order for the Israelis to plausibly claim success, any operation would have to deliver a heavy blow to Hamas and greatly diminish or halt entirely the rocket fire coming out of Gaza. As Martin Kramer explains, Hamas must ultimately be destroyed for the peace process to have any chance of success — one cannot pursue peace with an organization that denies your very right to exist. If Hamas is not obviously weakened by this operation, then like Hezbollah in 2006, it will emerge with enhanced political credibility (even if its capacity for violence has been severely eroded) and will have advanced its prospects for diplomatic recognition. Even on the left, there is agreement that the rocket fire must stop — just disagreement about the best way to achieve this goal, whether diplomacy offers a better chance of success. There is also, one hopes, a broad consensus that Hamas will never be a partner in peace, and that it must ultimately be replaced by a more moderate regime in Gaza if there is to be any chance for a viable two state solution. What the left does not condone is Israel’s objective of reestablishing a credible deterrent in Gaza. I wrote earlier this week that the ruthlessness with which Israel has carried out its air campaign in Gaza, including a strike that killed a Hamas leader, Nizar Rayan, along with all four of his wives and nine of his 12 children, was clearly an effort to change the calculus there:
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