Mowing the grass

Mowing the grass (כיסוח דשא) is a metaphor used to describe the strategy of Israel against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

The term was coined by Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shami to describe 'a patient military strategy of attrition with limited goals: to diminish their opponents' capacity to harm Israel, and to accomplish temporary deterrence – both of which are achieved through occasional large-scale operations, as seen with the three Gaza Wars and the Second Lebanon War (and epitomised by the "Dahiya doctrine"). Those who employ this strategy hope that, over time, the repeated achievement of these limited goals will drain the motivation of enemy fighters to harm Israel, and eventually cause the movement to fizzle out into obscurity. These are usually carried out by conducting short, sharp military operations to maintain a certain level of control over the area without committing to a long-term political solution, similar to how one would mow a lawn to keep it neat and tidy.

According to Adam Taylor in The Washington Post, "the phrase implies the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and their supply of crude but effective homemade weapons are like weeds that need to be cut back."

Naftali Bennett referred to the idea in a speech in 2018 when he said "מי שלא מכסח את הדשא, הדשא מכסח אותו ('He who does not mow the grass, the grass mows him')."