You are so wrong in your fundamental analysis. This is NOT like Pearl Harbor in so many ways. But I will only discuss the most important.
Japan did not have its stated goal the destruction of the USA. They wanted some territories and more power in the world. Wiping the USA “off the face of the map” was not a stated goal.
Hamas says that they will wipe Israel “off the face of the map.” They say it in print, on TV on radio and in their published papers etc.
So Israel instead of fighting an effective war and maximizing Palestinian casualties, chooses to allow humanitarian aid and put their soldiers in harms way so as not to have Palestinian civilian casualties.
War is ugly. The first Iraq war made a pretense of targeting just military assets through the use of guided munitions. But guided munitions were designed to protect pilots and make hitting the right targets efficient, not to protect civilians. It is by making life untenable for civilians that you get surrender, victory and the end of fighting.
This natural result of war has been short circuited by the new rules of engagement.
Want to stop the fighting in Gaza? Blockade everything, turn off power and carpet bomb from the Gaza-Israeli border inwards to Gaza until the missiles stop. Let it be up to the Palestinians if they want to stop on their own or if they no longer capable of sending missiles.
