The significance of the Hezbollah tunnel is clear. It is just one element of the multidimensional, long-term Iranian strategy to threaten and eventually destroy Israel, achieving in the process Iran’s hegemonic ambitions.
Gazan terrorist organizations are looking into armed drones and sea-based commando cells to replace the loss of their underground offensive capabilities, while concentrating fire at Israel’s Iron Dome to overwhelm it.
Both parties have ample incentive to settle their territorial dispute so that international companies exploring waters for natural gas will invest.
While many in Israel bemoan the financial burden of the new elections this fall, the major cost to the country will likely lie in other realms.
In the last election, Netanyahu rolled up his sleeves and jumped right into the right-wing fray in order to bring about a unity deal between the various right-wing parties. This time, it seems he will need to work even harder.
“There needs to be a groundswell of activism and advocacy demanding the elimination of this gross form of discrimination against the Jewish state, and by extension, the Jewish people,” head of UN Watch says.
While Republicans have been more inclined to weave faith into their rhetoric, particularly since the rise of the evangelical Right in the 1980s, several current Democratic White House hopefuls are explicitly linking their views on policy to religious values.
The fact that no one in the chain of the command tried to assign blame for the botched Gaza mission is testimony to the quality of the IDF's special ops personnel. Now that secret and vital branch of the military has a chance to reinvent itself.
Five years removed from Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, the current assessment in Israel is that Hamas is restrained and deterred from engaging in a broad military conflict. Regardless, the next round of fighting is almost inevitable and won't resemble its predecessors.
The twin issues of Iran and North Korea illustrate how the isolationist Right and the universalist Left march hand in hand.
