Two good reasons for Israel to neutralize Hamas in Gaza

Israel’s decision to leave Gaza some years ago meant that it could no longer police that cesspool of a Strip, and thus that it would suffer from the rocket attacks that have plagued it ever since. Now, Isreal’s only recourse is periodically to intervene in Gaza. That’s what is happening now, and the intervention might entail another invasion.

Given that the Israelis must tackle Gaza every few years anyway to protect Southern Israel from rocket attacks, this isn’t a bad time for such an operation. As Gene Schwimmer at Ricochet points out, neutralizing Hamas’s missile capability now means not having to deal with it later, should Israel decide to attack Iran in the near future.

Schwimmer also notes that, so far, Hezbollah in Lebanon has not provided any support for Hamas on Israel’s northern front. He suggests that this shows Hezbollah wouldn’t be a factor if Israel attacks Iran.

That sounds a bit optimistic to me. Iran reasonably can expect more loyalty from its client Hezbollah than Hamas can. But neutralzing Hamas would certainly constitute a plus in the event of a conflict with Iran.

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