During the 2014 Gaza war, the IDF destroyed 32 tunnels built by Hamas in order to stage attacks within Israel; Hamas also possesses an entire network of tunnels that can be used by its troops in the event of an Israeli attack, and hundreds of smuggling tunnels are said to connect Gaza to Egypt despite Cairo’s efforts to destroy them. Dan Feferman describes what Israel can do to defend itself:

Israel is left with a tough choice—strike now [to destroy tunnels] and almost certainly spark another war, or wait till Hamas strikes and risk a civilian massacre in one of the Israeli villages near Gaza. . . . But Israel does have a number of options, and they tend to go together.

First, Israel must continue and increase its intelligence efforts. This means aggressively gathering intelligence on tunnels that cross into Israel and taking limited action, as much as is possible, to neutralize them. . . . In any case, a clear picture of tunnel locations will be crucial should Hamas launch another war.

Second, U.S.-Israel cooperation on anti-tunnel technology is crucial and will eventually provide a solution. This clearly benefits Israel, but will also aid the U.S. It ensures that Israel can defend itself against threats, thus staving off the next round of fighting. And by researching, developing, and field-testing new technologies in Israel, the U.S. can then deploy these same technologies on its own southern border, and help defend foreign bases and embassies from infiltration abroad.

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.