Opinion: The war on Gaza and the crisis of US power

The results of the Gaza war are still to become clear, but it is not too early to make a provisional assessment.

The horrific cost in terms of Palestinians killed, injured and displaced is unprecedented in the 75-year struggle between the Israeli state and the Palestinians. Even the Nakba in 1948 did not see this level of death and destruction.

So the first and most obvious point is that the Israelis will not suffer an outright military defeat. This is not surprising, for they are deploying a state-of-the-art military against a largely unarmed, at best poorly armed, population.

So military defeat in any conventional sense was never a likely outcome for Israel.

But even in the military register, the Israelis have not by any means had things all their own way. Given the asymmetry of arms, they have suffered high military casualties.

They have not, and are not likely to, destroy Hamas or decapitate its leadership. Only one Hamas leader has been killed by Israel so far. And the unrelenting and barbaric nature of the Israel army's onslaught will ensure that Hamas will continue to recruit for decades to come.

Many Hamas fighters were orphaned in previous clashes with Israel. Tragically, there are many more orphans now. 

Read more: The war on Gaza and the crisis of US power - by John Rees