Israel is looking to World War II in its Gaza fight, and it risks taking lessons from the wrong war

• Israel faces long odds of ending Hamas, and even if it succeeds it's faced with a difficult dilemma: What comes next?
• The US invaded Iraq and Afghanistan but ran into trouble when it tried to rebuild their governments.
• "The Israelis have a similar problem here," a military expert with RAND told Insider.

Israel's military is leveling the tiny Gaza enclave with the overwhelming force of a nation that, much like the US in 2001, vows never again to be blindsided by a massive terrorist attack. 

Hamas, Israelis feel, must be destroyed.