President Biden and European allies are urging Israel to moderate and delay its long-planned ground invasion into Gaza, coming up with endless new reasons to avoid escalating the war. Yet, they are ignoring the pitfalls of inaction. 

Following Hamas’s October 7 atrocities, the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu has vowed to end the terrorist organization’s political control of the Gaza Strip, destroy its military capabilities, and kill all the planners and participants in the massacres of more than 1,400 Israelis and foreigners.

Israel is preparing a major operation involving air, sea, and land forces, the defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said Monday, as 365,000 reserves and regular Israeli Defense Force troops have been waiting for more than two weeks for the government to green-light entry into the strip. 

Yet, Washington and allies are urging Israel to avoid widening the war, citing the need to first allow negotiations over hostages and to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza. They are also urging the IDF to obey international law, avoid hitting civilians, and strategize about the “day after” before launching a major war.  

America is “advising Israel to delay a ground invasion of Gaza to allow for more time for hostage negotiations and humanitarian aid,” NBC News is reporting, based on discussions with four administration officials. An adviser, Lieutenant General James Glynn of the Marine Corps, was dispatched to Tel Aviv Monday “to help Israeli officials think through the difficult questions ahead,” Axios reports. 

America is conducting intense negotiations with Hamas’s benefactor, Qatar, for the release of hostages. On Friday, a mother and daughter who have American citizenship were released. On Monday, two frail Israeli women, ages 79 and 80, were also released, the Red Cross confirmed. Yet, the terrorists are still holding at least 222 hostages, according to the latest IDF tally.

“We are dealing with cynical, murderous terrorists who use hostages to pretend they are a humanitarian organization, while they hold hostage babies, women, sick people, and Holocaust survivors,” the IDF spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said Monday. 

The Israeli government, nevertheless, apparently agreed to postpone a Gaza land operation as American-led hostage negotiations continue. Some Israeli cabinet members reportedly offer counter arguments in internal meetings that a land invasion would actually hasten the release of hostages, either by liberating them militarily or by adding pressure on the hostage takers. 

Meanwhile, a third humanitarian convoy entered Gaza on Monday through the Rafah crossing at the Egyptian border. Israel reluctantly approved such deliveries after Mr. Gallant initially vowed to impose a complete siege on the Hamas-controlled strip.

“The Americans insisted and we are not in a place where we can refuse them,” Mr. Gallant reportedly told the security cabinet Sunday. “We rely on them for planes and military equipment. What are we supposed to do? Tell them no?”

In a joint statement on Sunday, President Biden and his Canadian, French, German, British, and Italian counterparts expressed “support for Israel and its right to defend itself against terrorism.” Yet, they also “called for adherence to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians.” A proposed American resolution along similar lines was distributed to members of the UN Security Council over the weekend. 

Washington officials also are warning of complications involving a land  invasion, which would be “characterized by a lot of IEDs, a lot of booby traps, and just really grinding activity,” the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, warned on ABC News Sunday. He warned against a wider regional war that would involve Hezbollah and other Mideast Iranian proxies. 

Meanwhile, the IDF is reportedly fully prepared to enter Gaza even as the Israeli government delays the operation. Mr. Netanyahu is said to be heeding American warnings and would prefer further air attacks to soften Hamas targets before launching the invasion.  

The army is ready, and only Mr. Netanyahu is delaying the invasion, according to the creator of the television series “Fauda,” Avi Issacharoff. “It is true that you should not rush and you should prepare for what will happen the day after and what about the abductees,” he writes on X. “The longer action is delayed, the less chance there is that it would result in the downfall of Hamas,” he adds. “If it doesn’t happen soon, it won’t happen at all.”

If the foreign pressure moves Israel to cancel or even postpone the planned land invasion, it is unlikely to achieve its goal of eradicating Hamas. In the Mideast, such a failure would likely be perceived as weakness and invite more frequent and more intense assaults than the one that shook the country and the world on October 7.   

America “is taking pride in encouraging Israeli ‘restraint,’” a strategic adviser to a former prime minister, Naftali Bennett, Shimrit Meir, writes on X. “A decisive Israeli victory is an American interest,” she argues, and “if this conflict will end well for the other side, both Hamas and Hezbollah, it will project on their posture in the region and in the world.”