Cato the Elder famously said at the end of every speech, "Carthago delenda est" (Carthage must be destroyed).
Carthage was a thriving Phoenician city-state in today's Tunisia and was Rome's greatest rival. The two had three bloody wars. Ultimately, Carthage was indeed destroyed by Rome and the threat was removed.
It appears that today, the only way to contend with Gaza is with similarly aggressive tactics. No, it is not Carthage, and we should not decimate it, but Hamas must be destroyed. Hamas delenda est.
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Hamas's entire raison d'être is based on its fanatic ideology and its desire to destroy Israel. Its leaders know that this cannot take place overnight, nor can it take place over a year. That is why Hamas occasionally agrees to a ceasefire with Israel and we get a few years of calm. But the ultimate goal never changes, and ultimately the terrorist group reverts back to its attack mode.
Hamas is at a crossroads. It can give up its armed struggle against Israel, as other Palestinian factions have done, and find a way toward coexistence. But that will undermine its entire ideology. Another is to continue fighting Israel with occasional ceasefires. But that does not bode well for either Gaza or Israel.
Our policymakers, including those in the military, refuse to launch a wide-scale attack to eradicate Hamas because of the heavy casualties such an operation would entail. It is true that such an effort would involve heavy fighting and painful sacrifices, but if we let the status quo continue, it will cost us very dearly as well.
Having repeated flare-ups for years on end will add more and more casualties and erode Israeli deterrence. It means more fear and more instances of people running for cover, and it also means relying more and more on Iron Dome interceptors and other defensive systems.
If Hamas refuses to disavow terrorism, Israel must destroy it in a military campaign. This doesn't mean we have to once again settle and occupy the Gaza Strip.
We have to coordinate the eradication effort with moderate Arab states who also want to get rid of Hamas. After we take care of Hamas (and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad along the way), we have to make sure that Gaza is ruled by a non-terrorist regime, a civilian entity that is supported by Egypt and moderate Arab states. Israel should not take part in this regime other than by facilitating the effort by lifting sanctions and helping with humanitarian aid.
But judging from the conduct of our politicians, it looks like nothing will change: We will continue having one flare-up after another, one ceasefire after another.
Gaza Strip residents will protest, the government will provide more shelters and Hamas will continue building more tunnels and create more threats from the air and sea.
We all know that so long as Hamas remains true to its terrorist ideology there is no alternative but to pursue the policy of "Hamas delenda est."
