No one can accuse me of being soft on terrorism, but there is no point in launching a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, at least as long as Israel wants to avoid direct military rule over the area.
Another "round of hostilities" inside the Gaza Strip to enable the Palestinian Authority to take over, as many have suggested, is just not worth it. Israeli troops should not serve as PA President Mahmoud Abbas' mercenaries.
The left-wing punditocracy has found its hawkish voice and has been blasting the government over its restraint.
But the government should not take the bait. As soon as Israel becomes bogged down in a large ground war that claims lives, those same left-wing pundits will lambaste the government again.
This is what happened when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the prisoner swap that brought back captive Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in 2011. As soon as the deal was announced, the very people who had pressured the government to make the deal began to criticize the government for buckling under the pressure.
The military alternative is to use our relative edge: our air force, tanks and artillery. The government must do away with the puritanism that has taken hold among some in the top brass. It should instead adopt a policy that exacts a heavy price for every barrage from the Gaza Strip. Israel must carry out massive bombing campaigns that resemble the systematic leveling of the Hezbollah-controlled neighborhood near Beirut, the Dahiya, during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
Israel should destroy the homes of senior terrorists from the air rather than demolish them from the ground. We should expect our leaders to learn the right lessons from past wars and minimize the risk to our soldiers. We should intensify the attacks on Hamas and its proxies and uncover its hideouts without any warning. Hamas' leadership comprises war criminals and terrorists. This makes them legitimate targets. We must end the deplorable situation in which Hamas VIPs can feel free to travel on the Gaza-Cairo-Tehran axis.
What about a long-term cease-fire? First, such an agreement would not be worth the paper, since all past deals have been breached (including the one ending Operation Protective Edge in 2014).
Second, how can we reach such a deal when Hamas holds the bodies of two Israeli soldiers and two Israeli civilians?
Third, striking a deal after having to bear months of Hamas attacks using incendiary kites would give Hamas a propaganda victory that would resonate with many terrorists in the region. Hamas would be able to claim, justifiably, that it is able to control Israel's actions and the scope of the violence.
A sovereign state cannot let terrorists hold its citizens hostage.
