Practice Makes Perfect

Here is an excellent summary of the state of the Gaza War as of now, found in Ynetnews.com. Basically, the IDF has the hard job of finding the terrorists who are hiding in bunkers, and getting what information they can from them before sending them to the makeshift prison they have set up near the Gaza border. They need to destroy the bunkers and tunnels. The above article described it as “root canal” (a lot more painful for the patient than the dentist!).

The IDF learned a lot fromt he Second Lebanon War, and they have been training ever since. I can attest to this personally as they sometimes train not far from where I live. On the next hill over from us are some abandoned concrete shells of buildings. A contractor went bankrupt in the middle of building new homes, and the IDF takes advantage of them by using them as a training ground. We would frequently hear gunfire as the soldiers practiced fighting in a simulated urban environment.

Hamas is in a tough position now. The IDF turned off the electricity, so they don’t have access to the electronic media. The number of IDF soldiers is incredible – four brigades at once are already there, and the reserve soldiers are still being called up (a few men from my yishuv have received their tzav 8). They are also disappointed that the Arabs have not rioted worldwide in their support.