The war in Israel

In late December 2008, Israel and Hamas fought a somewhat smaller-intensity war than what began this week. I took the occasion to write about what Hamas is, how it began, what its objectives are, and how the Hamas-Israel ongoing war can end (Notes on the Gaza Bombings). 

As you will see, not much has changed since then, except that the scale and ferocity of Hamas' attacks this week are evoking a much stronger Israeli response than in earlier years. Furthermore, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was a professional solider before entering politics. While he faces criticism and controversy on domestic matters, Israelis know that his skills for this crisis are excellent.

In southern Israel there is a town called Sederot (sometimes spelled Sderot). It is only one kilometer from Gaza. Just Friday, Hamas gunmen drove through Sederot, shooting at Israelis.

Just surreal! Footage of Palestinian Hamas terrorists who infiltrated into Israel from Gaza, firing at residents in Sderot from an SUV. pic.twitter.com/ffUO5XwG1I

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) October 7, 2023

I visited Sederot in October 2007, arriving only a few hours after it had come under rocket attack from Hamas, firing from Gaza. Such attacks were frequent. Here is my account, "The Sederot Gambit:" 

I will update this post from time to time with additional developments. It needs to be understood, however, that Hamas has literally, militarily invaded Israel. Dozens of towns in Israel were not only bombarded with Hamas rockets, Hamas soldiers went into them shooting people on the street without regard to age or status. John Hinderaker has posted several videos of just those things as they happened.