Also any potential truce deal would probably include an increase in commercial traffic from Israel and Egypt into Gaza, which is Hamas’s central demand: to end the economic boycott and border closing it has been facing.

To build up the Gaza economy under Hamas, Israeli leaders say, would be to build up Hamas. Yet withholding the commerce would continue to leave 1.5 million Gazans living in despair.

Implicit in Benn’s argument, however, is that the way to stop Hamas from gaining legitimacy is for Israel to fully occupy Gaza again, more than three years after removing its soldiers and settlers. That is a prospect no one in Israel or abroad is advocating.

While it may sound decisive to speak of taking Hamas out of power, no one familiar with Gaza and Palestinian politics considers it realistic.

The likelier result of a destruction of the Hamas , would be chaos, anathema to the people of Gaza and also to those hoping for peace in southern Israel.