Mowing the grass (
Hebrew: כיסוח דשא) is a
metaphor used to describe the strategy of
Israel against Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip.
The term was coined by Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shami to describe 'a patient military strategy of attrition with the goal: to diminish the Palestinians capacity to resist
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 slaughter of Palestinians will drain the motivation of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation, and eventually cause the movement to fizzle out into obscurity. These are usually carried out by conducting 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.