At about 5 AM (local time) the Israeli Air Force launched a preemptive attack on some 40 launch sites operated by Hezbollah in Lebanon. The strike resulted in the destruction of over 6000 missiles before they could e fired on Israeli targets. Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv was shut down for about 2 hours. That caused a lot of nervousness within the ranks of foreign air crews of planes chartered to fly to Israel. Some aircrews refused to make the trip and left their passengers stranded in Larnaca. As of now, regular service has been resumed. El Al is the principal airline still operating in Israel (and is earning above average profits from that fact.
Hezbollah released a statement that they had successfully completed the ‘first phase/ of their retaliatory attack against Israel. they claimed to have fired 320 missiles. (Israeli air defenses downed most of them, and there have been no reports of Israeli casualties). At least one commentator said the timing of the Hezbollah attack was set by a 40 day Islamic mourning period for Hezbollah leader Shukr. Iran did not participate.
The timing of the Israeli preemptive strike indicated that Israeli intelligence is still about the best in the world. The IAF attack was restricted to missiles and launchers set to participate in the Hezbollah attack (Hezbollah still has an arsenal of nearly 200,000 Iranian supplied missiles. It is the strongest non- governmental armed force in existence}.
From my point of view, this was a defensive victory for the IDF similar to that of last April against Iran, but purely IAF, without help from Americans, the RAF or others. But wars are not won by defense alone. Israel still has thousands of civilians that have been evacuated from their homes in the north, and the regular daily shower of Hezbollah attacks as not stopped. American efforts need to stop focusing on Israel and the “humanitarian crisis”. In the last analysis, that problem was caused by Hamas and the US needs to place the blame squarely on them. (and, maybe, also on Iran).
Wetherhorn 