There is yet no clear political endgame emerging from the Israeli government or its western allies, still seemingly ready to support Israel’s free hand to punish the people of Gaza under the ‘right to defend itself’. However, putting aside the more extreme voices seeking to permanently depopulate the Strip or nuke it to oblivion, two largely consensual goals can be adduced from the Israeli stance so far: the first is that Hamas must be unequivocally defeated and its military and political-civilian presence uprooted from Gaza once and for all; and the second, that there should be no return to the...