Israeli hardware defeated by Palestinian morale

Assuming the ceasefire holds, it is now time to assess the preliminary results of the Israeli attack on Gaza, and I would score this one as a definite victory for Hamas.  Why?

Because it is pretty clear that the IDF was deterred from entering into Gaza whereas the usual orgy of violence unleashed by the Israelis on the Gaza Strip did not deter Palestinians at all.  It is also pretty clear that the Israelis were the ones who wanted a ceasefire whereas Hamas could have kept going, all for the same reason: there was nothing more left worth destroying in Gaza.
 
Bottom line: if anything, that pompous imbecile Netanyahu actually substantially weakened the deterrent capability of the Israeli military with the operation "Pillar of Defense".

Think of it this way: according to Time magazine, as of the 19 of November the IDF had launched more than 1,350 air, tank, and warship strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip (the actual figure will be substantially larger, of course).  And yet, even after such an intensive fire preparation of the battlefield, the IDF did not dare enter Gaza.  This is frankly pathetic and makes me wonder if the IDF is still capable of *any* real military operation (shooting unarmed civilians does not qualify).  This dismal performance is even more pitiful when you consider the rather lame performance of Hamas.

Having promised to open the "Gates of Hell"  Hamas delivered a missile assault which could be compared to the effect of a wet firecracker.  And yet, in all their misfortunes, the Palestinians are blessed to have paranoid cowards like the Israelis as their oppressors: the otherwise totally useless Qasssem missiles are still good enough to scare a population suffering from a form of psychosis Gilad Atzmon calls "pre-traumatic stress disorder".

The real deterrent capability of Hamas lies, of course, not in the Qassem missile, but in its foot soldiers which would have met any Israeli incursion inside Gaza with an intense combination of anti-tank fire, snipers, and highly mobile assault groups.  But the Israelis do not have what it takes for that kind of fight.

Operation "Pillar of Defense" pitted Israeli hardware against Palestinian morale, and that the latter clearly came out on top.

The Saker