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Israeli airstrikes in Gaza are intensifying, with troops and tanks on standby in preparation for a ground invasion of the territory that could begin any day. This is likely only the start of Israel's response to the horrific attacks carried out by Hamas earlier this month.
According to RAND's Raphael Cohen, Hamas’s assault underscored the inevitable—and ongoing—failure of Israel’s strategy in Gaza, which many Israeli analysts have called “mowing the grass.”
The last decade and a half has been dominated by a grim cycle, Cohen says. Some Palestinians who are frustrated by the awful conditions in Gaza turn to groups like Hamas. Israel then imposes restrictions, making living conditions in Gaza even worse, and unrest grows. Hamas and others capitalize on this unrest and attack Israel. Then, Israel responds by “mowing the grass,” killing the perpetrators of the attack, along with some number of Palestinian civilians. This buys Israel, at best, a few years of relative peace, while fueling more radicalization. And then, the cycle continues.
Although attention is currently focused on the immediate situation on the ground, Cohen says that, after “mowing the grass” has failed so spectacularly, it’s essential to ask what can break this deadly cycle. Once Israel’s fight against Hamas has ended, he says, it will have to rebuild Gaza into something better, give Palestinians a chance at economic prosperity, and help ensure that they have political options besides Hamas or the corrupt Palestinian Authority.
This will be difficult. It may also be hard for some Israelis to stomach, considering Hamas’s atrocities. But as Cohen writes, “It is nevertheless what's necessary to end the cycle of mowing the grass only to watch it grow back.”
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