The Friday Kaboom

More of the same yesterday. Hamas launched 1050+ rockets the first 36 hours of the war, but has 'only' launched a thousand or so the last 72. Iron Dome remains magnificent. 

Yesterday Hamas attempted several suicide drone strikes. These accomplished precisely nothing.

We've been wondering if the Israelis were just bombing empty buildings and bouncing rubble. Far from it. Operation Guardian of the Walls is showing tangible results.

Last night Israeli troops massed on the border. Tanks and artillery bombarded targets of opportunity. Anticipating an attack, Hamas deployed ground troops. Then 160  IAF aircraft conducted a massive simultaneous strike on Hamas' border tunnel network, the Metro. We suspect the Israelis spent the week gathering intel on the network. It was a dazzling deception. Indeed the Jew is clever.

There were more Arab-Jewish riots in Israel. The Jerusalem Post reports: 'So far, more than 750 rioters have been arrested since the beginning of the violence, and more than 400 have had their remand extended, the police reported on Friday.' This has been long simmering, no? What a disaster.

In a development that stuns this blog, Naftali Bennett has entered negotiations with Bibi to form a government. Says The Times of Israel: 'In a dramatic decision Thursday that remakes Israel’s coalition-building arithmetic, Yamina party leader Naftali Bennett ruled out the option of forming a government with Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid that would replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing the rioting and chaos unfolding throughout Israel as extremist Arab and Jewish mobs vandalize and terrorize numerous cities.' This blog, which was fed up with Bibi, agrees. In a time like this, he's the man you want. He's handled these situations before and he knows how to deal with an intransigent White House.

When fighting Arabs perception is everything. They must be shown that that they have lost. Ironically, given that Israeli spent the first 25 years of its existence frying his lamb kabob, the Arab tends to see survival as victory. You're average Egyptian thinks he won the Yom Kippur War. It is clear that Israel has struck a mighty blow against Hamas. 

Hamas has shown in can manufacture missiles that hit Tel Aviv and the Israelis can't stop them from launching. This is not exactly news. We don't see that Hamas has any tricks left. 

From a couch in New Jersey we'd say Israel is kicking Hamas' ass. At this point Israel's challenge is to show that the campaign seriously hurt Hamas.