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Source: https://www.commentary.org/articles/jonathan-schanzer/new-middle-east-israel-challenges/
The War May Be Over but the Fighting Is Not
(Commentary) Jonathan Schanzer - The last live hostages are out of Gaza. Hamas is battered and bloodied. All of Israel's regional foes are worse off than they were two years ago. It is important now for Israel to lock in the gains from these grueling two years of war. The war played out on seven kinetic fronts - eight if you count Israel's Sep. 9 strike in Qatar - with additional battles in cyberspace, the mainstream media, social media, college campuses, courtrooms, the UN, and beyond. The regime in Iran is now working feverishly to reestablish its air defenses, rebuild its ballistic missile arsenal, and perhaps even rebuild its nuclear program. There is also the rest of the Iranian axis. So long as the regime maintains its ambition of destroying Israel, its proxies will do the same. This includes Hizbullah, Hamas, Shiite militias in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen. They continue to receive weapons, funding, and other support from the regime. Turkey, the country with the second-largest army in NATO, has openly called for the Islamic world to destroy Israel. The Erdogan regime's key ally is the wealthy microstate of Qatar, which can certainly help fund Turkish ambitions, while offering support through the networks of Islamist adherents to the Muslim Brotherhood. The writer is executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.