Israeli historian Gadi Taub writes, “Israelis won’t stand for anything short of victory in Gaza.” Nor should they. The brutality of the Iran-backed October 7 assault on Israel deserves full retribution against Hamas, and Taub says, “No government will be able to hold power in this country if it resigns itself to defeat at the hands of genocidal jihadists.”

Fortunately, The Wall Street Journal editorial board provides a good update on the progress of the war with a word of caution.

Israel is winning its war in Gaza. Hamas’s losses are mounting, and support for the Israeli war effort has endured around the world longer than Hamas expected.

The war is far from over, but Hamas’s southern stronghold of Khan Younis is falling. Civilians have streamed out and Hamas’s remaining forces in the city’s west are encircled. They face an Israeli advance on all sides, and Israel is now fighting below ground in force.

Biden Administration restrictions and Israeli caution have slowed the war, but consider that the 2016-17 battle of Mosul against ISIS took nine months. “Mosul,” writes John Spencer, chief of urban warfare studies at West Point’s Modern War Institute, “was one battle, in one city against 3 to 5k militants with limited defenses. Israel is fighting multiple battles in 7 cities against 30k militants with military grade underground cities built under civilian areas.”

Israel needs time to achieve victory, and Hamas is counting on Western powers to deny it that time.

Yet much has been accomplished already: “Israel says it has killed, incapacitated or arrested some 20,000 of Hamas’s 30,000 men and dismantled 17 of Hamas’s 24 Gaza combat battalions.” More than 100 hostages have been freed, though 132 remain captive. Israel is seeing success in many ways in spite of the Biden administration, which is trying to placate the pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party.

Once Hamas’s last brigades are defeated, it will take time to sweep Gaza for terrorist cells and infrastructure. Israel is clearing urban terrain and tunnels at a “historic pace,” Mr. Spencer writes, but the tunnels are vast and soldiers find munitions in home after home.

Israel’s task for 2024 is to finish the job, but will U.S. political support hold?

There is hope, the Journal concludes:

Europe’s elected leaders are also holding the line, and no Arab state has quit the Abraham Accords. Only Iran, which has escalated its regional war against the U.S., applies pressure. Even the United Nations International Court of Justice balked at ordering a cease-fire.

Winning the war doesn’t guarantee winning the peace afterward, but it is essential for a secure Israel and a chance for Palestinians to have a normal life in Gaza.

Journal subscribers can read the whole thing here.