The war Israel is fighting in Gaza is in many ways without precedent in the history of warfare, involving simultaneous combat both on the ground and below ground, against an enemy that has deeply embedded itself into the civilian infrastructure. In all of Israel, Yaakov Amidror observes in a highly revealing briefing, there is insufficient dynamite to destroy all of Hamas’s tunnels. That, he explains, accounts for the apparent slowness of Israel’s progress into Hamas’s strongholds. Among much else, Amidror outlines why the IDF’s repeated clashes with Hamas in the northern parts of the Strip (e.g., the recent fighting in Jabaliya) are signs of its success rather than its failures; what Israeli officials mean when they speak about “dismantling” Hamas; and how he knows that Palestinian civilians trust the IDF not to attack designated safe zones. He also addresses the problems entailed in confronting Hizballah in the north. (Video, 69 minutes.)

Calling the proposal to depopulate Gaza completely (if temporarily) “unworkable,” Peter Berkowitz makes the case for a similar, but more feasible, plan:

The United States along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE should persuade Egypt by means of generous financial inducements to open the sparsely populated ten-to-fifteen miles of Sinai adjacent to Gaza to Palestinians seeking a fresh start and better life. Egypt would not absorb Gazans and make them citizens but rather move Gaza’s border . . . westward into Sinai. Fences would be erected along the new border. The Israel Defense Force would maintain border security on the Gaza-extension side, Egyptian forces on the other. Egypt might lease the land to the Palestinians for 75 years.

The Sinai option does not involve forced transfer of civilian populations, which the international laws of war bar. As the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other partners build temporary dwellings and then apartment buildings and towns, they would provide bus service to the Gaza-extension. Palestinian families that choose to make the short trip would receive a key to a new residence and, say, $10,000.

The Sinai option is flawed. . . . Then again, all conventional options for rehabilitating and governing Gaza are terrible.