August 15, 2022 | Mosaic

Israel Is Learning a Better Way to Deal with Gaza

Israel’s actions in the recent Gaza flare-up show just how valuable self-correction can be. On every dimension, its performance was at least slightly improved.
August 15, 2022 | Mosaic

Israel Is Learning a Better Way to Deal with Gaza

Israel’s actions in the recent Gaza flare-up show just how valuable self-correction can be. On every dimension, its performance was at least slightly improved.

Excerpt

In a series of repeating images, it is the small and subtle differences that tell the true story.

This week’s spate of violence in and around the Gaza Strip mostly resembles the previous rounds—in 2021, 2019, 2014, 2012, and 2009—in the weapons used by both sides, the lopsided death tolls, and the selectively pious outrage of the self-appointed guardians of global probity.

But there were a few slight changes this time, and they reveal a great deal. The Iran-backed militant group which initiated the crisis last week by threatening an attack on Israel unless a long list of demands were met greatly overestimated its own tactical capabilities and greatly underestimated the operational and intelligence capabilities of its Israeli adversary. It also misread the domestic political situation in Israel and the regional diplomatic situation in the Middle East.

Shany Mor is an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a research fellow at the Institute for Liberty and Responsibility at Reichman University. Follow him on Twitter at @ShMMor. FDD is a nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

Issues:

Iran Iran-backed Terrorism Israel Jihadism Palestinian Politics