The first war aim is to destroy Hamas. Over the past three weeks that has come to mean eradicating the group’s military infrastructure and killing its leadership and as many of its foot soldiers as possible. Because Hamas undertook a mass-attack to kill Jews, Israelis can no longer tolerate the old stand-off in which Hamas violence was supposed to have been kept at a tolerable level by a combination of financial rewards and the threat of Israeli attack. Israel is pursuing four wars , and they are in tension with each other. Its forces have begun what on October 28th the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, called the second stage of the war the ground invasion of Gaza. Does Israel stand a chance to victory ?