When Israel began striking back against Hamas in Gaza a mere hours after 3,000 terrorists stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, most people believed the ensuing conflict would last a few months at most. And yet here we are, six months after the first shots were fired with no end in sight. Despite the latest pullout of Israeli troops in the enclave’s south over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is as focused today on wiping out Hamas as he was when the first bombs dropped.
To say a lot has changed since October would be a shallow interpretation of events. The last six months has upended the prevailing assumptions that have dominated U.S. and Israeli policy in the Middle East, delayed big diplomatic initiatives in the region and sparked a series of other conflicts ranging from an undeclared war between the Houthis and the U.S. Navy in the Red Sea as well as increasingly intense fighting between Israel and Hezbollah along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
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