On the surface at least, it’s pretty clear that Israel invaded the Gaza Strip on Thursday to destroy tunnels used by the militant group Hamas, which has fired thousands of rockets out of Gaza into Israel and which relies on those tunnels to access Israel and Egypt. But, surely, this won’t destroy Hamas outright. The group will be able to dig more tunnels or will find other ways to resupply themselves. And Israel knows that — its stated objectives, notably, don’t include ending Hamas’s rule in Gaza. Meanwhile, more Israeli soldiers have died during the ground offensive than in any war since 2006. And many, many more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed. So what’s the point of all this suffering? Why did Israel launch an invasion that will cost Israeli lives but likely only have a near-term impact on Hamas?

Answering that requires understanding how Israel thinks about military threats. For a long time, Israel has believed that it can’t ever fully eliminate the threats to its survival: it can only manage them. That means using military power to deter attacks on Israel and, sometimes, going to war to punish and weaken enemies that Israel thinks pose a real threat.

This approach served Israel well for a time, or at least has worked enough to stave off total defeat. But the emphasis on managing problems over solving them can lead to short-term thinking, and it’s not clear that the way this strategy has been applied to Hamas — euphemistically called “mowing the grass” — is really working. Here’s a rundown of the past, present, and future of Israel’s strategy, and how it helps explain the current Gaza offensive.

Read more from Zack Beauchamp at Vox.com here: http://www.vox.com/2014/7/22/5926275/israel-gaza-mowing-the-grass