Since the brief war in May—known in Israel as Operation Guardian of the Walls—Hamas has more or less refrained from launching missiles from Gaza, while Jerusalem has eased some of the economic pressure on the territory. Egypt meanwhile has been trying to mediate an arrangement whereby Hamas will release the bodies of two fallen Israeli soldiers, along with the Israeli citizens it is holding hostage. But Hamas has used the six months of quiet to build up its arsenal and to expand its reach, as Kobi Michael explains:

In the past few decades, the Jewish state has vastly expanded its diplomatic, economic, and sometimes military ties with South and East Asia, while doing its best to stay away from the conflicts that divide the countries in the region. Daniel Samet surveys the potential for these relationships, urging Jerusalem to avoid deepening cooperation with China and instead to focus on cultivating further its alliances-in-the-making with China’s competitors: