Birth Pangs of a New Palestine

By Mouin Rabbani

Hamas’ own military strategy is relatively clear. First, the Islamists seek to demonstrate the inability of Israel’s air campaign to halt or even prevent an escalation of Palestinian rocket fire, thus forcing Israel into ground combat in urban areas, producing the prospect of losses large enough to demoralize Israel’s army and society, and perhaps compel a wincing internal investigation like that conducted by the Winograd Commission after the 2006 Lebanon campaign.