Many residents in southern Israel are outraged. After an IDF officer was killed during an intelligence mission, close to 500 rockets and mortars were fired into the country, striking homes, apartments, a bus and even a kindergarten. One person was killed from the rocket fire. Barzilai Medical Center reported that they treated 93 patients following the latest wave of violence. But despite all of this, Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire and the citizens of southern Israel protested against this, blocking off areas and burning tires. Indeed, this ceasefire cost Netanyahu politically. Lieberman resigned as defense minister and now the government is in crisis. And a recent poll indicated that, if elections were held today, the Likud would get only 29 mandates (down from the current 30). So why did Israel's prime minister opt for a ceasefire instead of a military operation, even though the move was not popular among many residents of the country?
After years of struggling with the issue, Israel's prime minister has come to the realization that there is "no diplomatic solution for Gaza, just as there is no diplomatic solution for ISIS." Hamas is ideologically opposed to peaceful compromises and has a raison d'être of engaging in armed struggle till "the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea." They won't change their ideology regardless of how much their people suffer. Hamas educates its people to love death for Allah like the Israelis love life. It teaches Palestinians to aspire to become martyrs instead of doctors, professors, teachers and scientists.
When Israel withdrew from the coastal strip, the Palestinians in Gaza had an opportunity to create a Middle Eastern Singapore. Instead, they destroyed greenhouses built by Israel and transformed the coastal strip into a terrorist base. Unless the Palestinian people overthrow their own terrorist leadership, Israel would have to go back into Gaza in order to implement regime change if the Jewish state seeks to have a long-term peace agreement with the coastal strip.
However, not many in Israel are interested in re-occupying Gaza. For starters, as Israeli scholar Dr. Mordechai Kedar has noted, any ground operation would carry a heavy cost in human lives, for both Israelis and Palestinians. While this could be justifiable if it brings permanent quiet, it is not if Israelis find themselves dying on a daily basis, as was the case when Israel controlled southern Lebanon. Furthermore, should Israel stay in Gaza permanently, the Jewish state would be responsible for improving the livelihood of close to 2 million Gazans, the majority of whom are unemployed, lack electricity most of the day and suffer from poor infrastructure, resulting in sewage flowing into the Mediterranean Sea.
Some argue that Israel could engage in a limited military operation in order to restore deterrence. However, so far, that method has not worked. Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, there have been three major military operations in the coastal strip (Operation Cast Lead, Operation Pillar of Defense and Operation Protective Edge). Each of these campaigns brought Israel a period of quiet but in the end, it was not permanent. Israel's former Consul General to Chicago Yitschak Ben Gad noted that many Israelis think of destroying Hamas without paying attention to the long-term consequences: "If you destroy the terrorists in Gaza, then what? You stay and then get out? Once you get out, the problems start all over again."
Should Israel topple Hamas and then leave, there is a real risk that either an ISIS affiliate or Islamic Jihad would take over. At least Hamas is genuinely scared of Egypt and may calm things down for a while due to this fear. Furthermore, Netanyahu claimed that Hamas begged for a truce, emphasizing that the terror group now has an interest in there being quiet. However, Islamic Jihad or an ISIS affiliate, who are both much more militant than Hamas, are unlikely to do such a thing and have no interest in preserving the quiet. Furthermore, in the past, every time that Hamas used its own people as a human shield during one of Israel's military campaigns, anti-Israel sentiment dramatically increased across the globe, which had a political cost for Israel.
This is the last thing Israel needs when the Jewish state wants the world to remain focused on addressing the Iranian threat and seeks to build alliances with the greater Sunni Arab world. For these reasons, Netanyahu agreed to the ceasefire, hoping that the Egyptians will help Israel achieve quiet at least for a bit longer. That Hamas itself wants a truce to preserve its gains is an encouraging sign.
