Another round ended. Another round in the never-ending rounds between us and the terrorist organizations in Gaza. We got used to Hamas, this time the round was against Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The organization, which was careful to say was small and insignificant, fired nearly 1,500 rockets, mortars and missiles at Israel.
Two fatalities, one a licensed Gazan worker, a father of six - by the way, is he entitled to compensation like all terror victims? Homes were destroyed by direct hits, and for five days the country was paralyzed and millions of people living within range of the rockets stayed in bomb shelters, especially residents of the Gaza envelope.
Every time they said a rocket had landed and hit the house, but there were no casualties, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. There were no casualties? And what about the soul? What about the loss of property? Maybe the photo albums containing all the family's photographic memories caught fire? What about the animals in the area whose sirens were deafening? The injury to life is extremely important, but the injury to life leaves people injured for the rest of their lives.
And it can be assumed that both Israel and Gaza will say that they won. Israel will be proud of the number of senior officials who were assassinated in astonishing assassinations. Be proud that in agreeing to the ceasefire, it rejected the condition that the targeted killings stop. It will reiterate that it also succeeded in deterring Hamas, which did not join the fighting. But it is not inconceivable that Hamas will now continue to take advantage of the quiet that has come to continue arming, which it will employ as soon as it is convenient.
Jihad can boast that it managed to paralyze the country for five days, without Israel being able to completely paralyze its rocket capability, and both sides will breathe a sigh of relief that routine has returned to their lives until the next round, which will come.
The latest round brought color back to the cheeks of the coalition, and especially to those of the prime minister. This was also reflected in the polls, which once again placed him on the rise in public opinion as someone who managed the campaign well.
But between us, waging a campaign with an F-35 against a homemade rocket isn't really a force or something to be proud of. Netanyahu will now have to manage the coalition.
The first thing will be to please National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is excluded from security consultations, even though his place was supposed to be among the decision makers. When missiles fall, the police play a central role in the conduct of the home front.
Ben-Gvir will take full advantage of the situation. He will seize the moment and demand new budgets, and will also receive them. And even if he is asked to announce that from now on he will vote with the coalition, he will not agree to commit, because he has already recognized that Netanyahu needs him more than he needs Netanyahu.
Netanyahu will also have to deal with a freeze on the legal reform. Yariv Levin is not giving up, and Netanyahu has no certainty that he will be able to get all the fingers, including in the Likud. He knows that even if he forces all 64 fingers to vote for the reform changes, the demonstrations will return with greater intensity, and what has happened until now will be a preview of what will happen.
But in the meantime, we will make do with the fact that there is a ceasefire. You can go back to a latte with whipped oat milk. And savor the quiet. Just remember that it is temporary. Because until they reach a political settlement, they are doomed to live between rounds.
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