Kaos
Full Member
Its not really an apt comparison. ISIS for one an international ideological faction whose goals are the establishment of a caliphate. Hamas on the other hand were setup as a resistance organisation on the back of decades of Israeli oppression and futility of the secular factions that preceded it. Furthermore, ISIS were defeated largely thanks to the locals who had successfully taken back the territories they had lost. You'd also recall for example how the Iraqi security forces opted not to simply level Mosul to the ground, but instead liberated the city street by street, door by door, and were hence unsurprisingly welcomed as liberators. Contrast that to Israel's approach where they've gone in with a heavy hand, completely disinterested in minimising civilian casualties, and in turn had created a new generation of Palestinians who've lost everything, have nothing left but grief and hatred to grip on to, and will likely gravitate towards the clutches of Hamas - and if not Hamas, it'll be another organisation that would fill the vacuum.A more recent example would be Al Qaeda and ISIS. Both are similar ideologies that despite the ideas behind them still existing, the players have been killed or apprehended, their material capability removed and their geographic footprint eliminated, each of which have collectively resulted in these groups being marginalized into irrelevance. Hamas would be a significantly easier effort given they only exist in any meaningful way on a tiny strip of land that is geographically cut off by the IDF. Therefore if you extrapolate the amount of progress in terms of land gains the Israelis have already made in Gaza in just six weeks, I think we know how all of this is going to end.
That's the point ultimately. Israel are destined to fail if their objective is to 'crush Hamas' via sheer attrition. The Palestinians who've lost their homes, families, livelihoods and dignity wouldn't forgive the atrocities and will almost certainly seek vengeance, essentially dooming the cycle to repeat. I suspect the Israelis are aware of this, and are happy to perpetuate this cycle of violence so it gives them the justification they need to permanently 'relocate' those Palestinians under the guise of guaranteeing security for their own civilians.