Are you not Deterred?

And we're back home in Northern New Jersey. 

That's one of our Israel hats, which we lost ironically on the Kimana-Halfmoon side of the lake. 

Huh, sales surge yesterday. No idea why. Such are the mysteries of the Amazon algorithm. But we did well....we did well... 

Negotiations continue between Israel and Hamas intermediaries. Progress is being progressed, they say, whatever that means and whoever they are. Talks are expected to resume next week. Good. While negotiations continue, the Israelis can hammer Hamas. We have no insights and make no predictions. This blog doesn't think a ceasefire deal is in Netanyahu's interest, and if he really wants to ef over the Regime he'll keep the war going. Would Bibi do that? We kid, we kid. 

Meanwhile Israel has ordered the evacuation of a new zone in Gaza and continues its campaign of assassination in Lebanon. In response Hezbollah has released a video of one of its Bond-villain style underground layers. Remember, this massive facility was constructed under Bibi's watch. This blog doesn't mean to come off as over-confident. But given the almost daily assassination of Hezbollah officers, it's unlikely that the Israelis didn't already know about this facility and have targeted it thusly. And the IDF is releasing super cool pics of IAF long-range refueling exercises. Oh look, F-35s, hint...hint. 

Thinking creatively about the Middle East, we've been assuming that Israel's aggressive bombing campaign in Lebanon these the last few weeks has deterred Iran. But what if Iran has used the last few weeks to plan and prepare its response to Israel? Israel has been on a long winning streak, a months long winning streak. Sooner or later that winning streak will come to an end. Will Iran end it? The Israelis have promised that any Iranian attack will be met with disproportionate force. We'll see if deterrence works.