We all knew that if Israel couldn’t get them to take the bait with all its provocations that it would simply do what it always does, hit first and have the press call it preemptive. Israel has been targeting civilians in Gaza and Lebanon and the West bank without remorse or consequence. Hezbollah made its return fire exclusively on Israeli bases namely the Meron Base, Naftali Ze’ev artillery positions, the Zaitoun Base and the Yardan Base in the Golan Heights.

Notably Hezbollah hit Iron Dome installations. Nothing exposed the weakness of an anti-missile defense system more than hitting it with a missile. Israel’s mythical defense has been exposes as I said it would be. The distance a missile is fired from is far more important than the types of missile being fired. The most important factor for intercepting a missile is the response time and the shorter that is the less successful the defense will be. Lebanon is close enough to Israel to tag it with anything it chooses, drones, rockets, cruise missiles or ballistic missiles.

Mixing these types together has the best effect and overwhelms defenses. Hezbollah was measured in that they only used 320 Katyusha rockets and a few drones. Israel on the other hand did fixed wing air strikes. Hezbollah is responding to the assassination of Fuad Shukr. Israel did not know when or where this would take place. Nasrallah said they decided not to do a coordinated strike as the psychological effect and the effect on tourism and the economy in Israel which didn’t know when they retaliation would come was also valuable. In his speech, Netanyahu has been hiding in a bunker for weeks. They still have looming threats from Iran and the Houthi of Yemen as Israel has struck the soil in both of those countries as well. But it appears that Hezbollah was forced into begining its retaliation because Israel started attacking them. This was also hinted at by Nasrallah when he stated the mission may or may not be considered complete depending on the damage done and how satisfactory it is. The reserve the right to respond in the future. One can read this two ways. The attack is done but we are going to keep you giuessing and keep you on your toes. The attack is not done as we were forced into responding on the fly and more will be coming later as planned.

Today is John McCain still dead day. So what better way to punctuate that than a blue on blue naval attack. First Sergeant David Moshe Ben Shitrit was killed as the Iron Dome hit an Israeli boat.

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