(Washington Post) David Ignatius - Israel appears to have overcome the trauma of Oct. 7 and gained what military strategists call "escalation dominance" over Iran and its proxies: striking its adversaries at will and suffering only minor damage in response. Hamas has been tamed militarily. Hizbullah is reeling from the targeted killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of its top military commanders. And Iran's latest retaliatory barrage appears to have been absorbed by Israel without major losses. "The Iranian attack was a massive failure," said one U.S. official. "Iran once again threw all it had - nearly 200 of its vaunted and once-feared ballistic missiles - and what's left over [are] remnants of missile parts all over the Middle East." Israel has taken on Iran's network of proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen - and so far, it has been able to withstand Tehran's efforts to counterattack. For Israelis, the escalating campaign against Iran's network seems to have brought a rebirth of the nation's defiant self-confidence.
2024-10-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive