War of Annihilation

The Israeli's are issuing positively Arabesque threats. Via JPost:

A recent warning that the "next war with Hamas will be its last" is a reflection of a deeper change in the military’s and government’s thinking.

Saddam Hussein promised the 'mother of all battles', now the Israelis promise annihilation, first in Lebanon, now in Gaza:

Yet since the conclusion of the 50-day war with Hamas in the summer of 2014, a change has occurred in the thinking of the defense establishment and the government. The concept of fighting a war to achieve deterrence has been tossed aside, in favor of an old-new war goal: achieving the military destruction of the enemy.

The Israelis don't traditionally think this way. During the great Arab-Israeli Wars, the Israeli's goal was always to outlast their enemy and convince him to make peace. It worked with Sadat, of course, and King Hussein. Neither was a mad-man, heck King Hussein was always a reluctant warrior at best, as was his father, King Abdullah.

Of course, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and even Iraq were run by secular dictators. These had less patience for messianic nut-bags then the Israelis. Those messianic nut-bags are now Israel's main enemy. Of course, Egypt would welcome the destruction of Hamas while Saudi Arabia would welcome an Israeli strike on Iran.

What comes after Hamas. It is doubtful that Israel would want to run Gaza. One suspects they would destroy Hamas, casualties be damned, and turn the whole thing over to Abbas. He may be an incompetent clepto-crat, but Abbas is not a messianic nut-bag.

Better than nothing, I suppose.

Seems to me this has been written about before.

My war was more fun, with a fight in Gaza and a mini-invasion of Sudan.  Of course, General Pincus Kreiger wasn't trying to destroy Hamas, just degrade their capability.

How did the Israelis get ahead of me?