The Jewish left is trying to hold two thoughts at once

The Israeli War in Gaza, and the Defense Secretary L. J. Austin, Jr., a Washington, DC, Observer, and Associated with Israel

Gaza, heavily urbanized, with Hamas deeply entrenched, is an especially complex battlefield. Senior military officers have been sent to advise the Israelis and to ask them to delay the invasion, based on their experience in Iraq, to give Israel more time to negotiate the release of hostages and to deliver more humanitarian aid. American officials are worried that Israel lacks a plan with clear objectives that will prevent an enormous loss of life among Palestinians in Gaza.

In phone conversations with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has stressed the need for careful consideration of how Israeli forces might conduct a ground invasion of Gaza, where Hamas maintains intricate tunnel networks under densely populated areas.

The Pentagon official said that the deployment of General Glynn, reported by Axios, did not mean that the Pentagon was making decisions for Israel. The official said if an incursion into Gaza begins, General Glynn wouldn’t be in Israel.

In his conversations with Mr. Gallant, Mr. Austin has described the hard-fought campaign to clear the Iraqi city of Mosul of Islamic State fighters in 2016 and 2017. Mr. Austin was the head of the United States Central Command and American troops were supporting their Iraqi and Kurdish counterparts in the fight.

“The first thing that everyone should know, and I think everyone does know, is that urban combat is extremely difficult,” Mr. Austin told ABC News’s “This Week” on Sunday.

He told Mr. Gallant to conduct his operations in accordance with the law of war. American officials have become increasingly concerned that a ground invasion in Gaza could lead to a huge loss of civilian lives.

The Pentagon said he was on the phone with Mr. Gallant again on Monday. In an emailed statement, Brig. The two men discussed American security assistance to Israel, according to the Pentagon press secretary.

American officials said that Israel must decide whether, for instance, to try to take out Hamas by using surgical airstrikes combined with targeted raids by special operations troops — as American warplanes and Iraqi and Kurdish troops did in Mosul — or to roll into Gaza with tanks and infantry, as American Marines and soldiers, along with Iraqi and British forces, did in Falluja in 2004.

Both tactics will result in heavy losses, U.S. officials said, but a ground operation could be far bloodier, for troops and civilians. At the Pentagon, many officials believe that the Mosul and Raqqa clearing operations in Iraq more than a decade after Falluja are a better model for urban warfare.

The Coalition for a Ground Invasion of Gaza, Sen. Jack Reed, (R-R) Reed, and the Defense in Depth

“One of the things we’ve learned is how to account for civilians in the battle space, and they are a part of the battle space, and we, in accordance of the law of war, we’ve got to do what’s necessary to protect those civilians,” Mr. Austin said on Sunday.

But both Mosul and Raqqa resulted in significant civilian casualties. While such figures can vary widely, The Associated Press put the number of civilians killed during the effort to rid Mosul of Islamic State fighters at between 9,000 and 11,000. Michael Knights, a fellow with The Washington Institute, said that the Islamic State had only two years to prepare for the fight.

“Hamas has had 15 years to prepare a dense ‘defense in depth’ that integrates subterranean, ground-level and aboveground fortifications, communication tunnels, emplacements and fighting positions,” Mr. Knights wrote in an analysis earlier this month, “as well as potential minefields, improvised explosive devices, explosively formed penetrator anti-armor mines and buildings rigged as explosive booby traps.”

Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island who heads the committee, wants Israel to delay a ground invasion of Gaza in order to allow for hostage negotiations, more humanitarian aid to reach Palestinian civilians and give Israeli commanders more time to plan urban warfare.

“From an operational standpoint, this is very complicated, and the more intelligence you gather and your troops can take into urban combat, the better,” Mr. Reed said by phone from Cairo, where he and other senators were wrapping up a trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt. “A little extra time might be helpful. There are so many factors. Rushing into this probably is not the best approach.”

The Biden administration has given the same advice to Israel. Mr. Reed supported the ground invasion to destroy Hamas, just like U.S. officials. He warned that the urban fight in Gaza would be long-term and that it would take the Iraqi army nine months to destroy the Islamic State.

Israel’s response to the Sept. 11 Israeli attack on Israel: The Left and the Gaza Strip — Perspectives from Peter and Spencer Beinart

We have a show on the NYT Audio app and can be listened to wherever you listen to your podcasts. Here are some book recommendations from our guests.

Together we discuss the goals behind Hamas’s initial attack on Israeli Jewish civilians, how the attack changed the psychology of Jews living in and out of Israel and what Israel is trying to achieve in its military response.

My approach is going to be to try to cover it from many different perspectives, but I wanted to start with the one I’m closest to, which has felt particularly tricky in recent weeks: that of the Jewish left. I invited Spencer and Peter to the show.

The author of the newsletter Forever Wars and the award-winning columnist for The Nation is, in fact, one of the founding fathers of the 9/11 Era. Peter Beinart is the editor-at-large of Jewish Currents and a professor of journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. Right now, I think the way that Sept. 11 informs Israel’s response and the need for different kinds of actors and tactics is more important than any other angle they have taken.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has vowed to “demolish Hamas.” The group was removed from Gaza without clearly defining what that meant, after it killed more than 1,200 people in an attack on Israel.

The urban environment, the interaction between fighters and civilians and political pressures are likely factors to influence a ground war in Gaza.

The Gaza Strip is about 140 square miles, a narrow band slightly larger in area than Las Vegas, with a cluster of urban population centers. Gaza City, the capital, has around 700,000 people packed into around 20 square miles, with more tall buildings than U.S.-led forces faced in the battle for Mosul, creating a more dangerous three-dimensional front.

The Siege of Mariupol: The History of the First Battle Between the Ukrainian and Israeli Soldiers, and the Damnation of Gaza’s Tunnels

In many urban invasions, the rapid advance has been the undoing of those that have sought to use defenders. Last year’s siege of Mariupol is an example of a prime example. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers were holding the city against a larger Russian force for nearly three months.

John W. Spencer was the chair of urban warfare studies at the U.S. Military Academy and wrote about the first year of theUkraine war in a report.

It can be possible that a city can become different over time. Israel has destroyed hundreds of Gaza buildings in airstrikes. hundreds of miles of tunnels were built under Gaza City by Hamas to help it move between positions, hide hostages and protect supplies.