Lasting only 66 hours, the Israeli military operation last weekend was, in Ron Ben-Yishai’s words, “an outright Israeli triumph in all aspects: military, political, and financial.” That this was so, Ben-Yishai explains, is made most clear not by the success of the Iron Dome in intercepting the rockets launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) or the IDF’s swiftness in eliminating the organization’s leadership, but in the terms of the ceasefire:

The PIJ leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah, who is currently in Tehran, as well as the organizations’ other leaders in Gaza and Damascus, had no choice but to accept what the Egyptian mediators’ offer, even though it asked for no significant sacrifice from Israel. The ceasefire lacks any form of substantial political or military content, and does anything but put the organization at ease. It was essentially an unconditional surrender for Islamic Jihad, for the sake of Hamas and Gaza residents.

However, it must be noted that the IDF and civilians were blessed with a lot of luck. A lot of things had the potential to go wrong, yet the odds were in our favor. The missiles fired by our jets landed exactly where they were supposed to, the intelligence was flawless, and the collateral damage, i.e., innocent Gazan civilians, was kept to a minimum. Less than a third of the Palestinian casualties were a result of Israeli fire. This is a noteworthy accomplishment when comparing to previous operations, in which at least half of the casualties were uninvolved civilians. More so, this accomplishment is also noteworthy when compared to armies of other democratic countries.

It must be assumed that the luck we were blessed with this time probably won’t be on our side next time, and that it’s fair to expect that “the next time” is right around the corner. The main takeaway from this operation is that precise political and military preparations are necessary for success in the battlefield. This kind of preparation calls for resources—mostly time—hence the IDF must plan and practice to prepare for operations where we are not the initiators, who always have the upper hand.

Addressing a recent meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas more sharply than he has previously (at least in public), calling them “sons of dogs.” The eighty-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president urged the terrorist group to “stop the war of extermination in Gaza” and “hand over the American hostages.” The editors of the New York Sun comment:

Mr. Abbas has long been at odds with Hamas, which violently ousted his Fatah party from Gaza in 2007. The tone of today’s outburst, though, is new. Comparing rivals to canines, which Arabs consider dirty, is startling. Its motivation, though, was unrelated to the plight of the 59 remaining hostages, including 23 living ones. Instead, it was an attempt to use an opportune moment for reviving Abbas’s receding clout.

[W]hile Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians soared after its orgy of killing on October 7, 2023, it is now sinking. The terrorists are hoarding Gaza aid caches that Israel declines to replenish. As the war drags on, anti-Hamas protests rage across the Strip. Polls show that Hamas’s previously elevated support among West Bank Arabs is also down. Striking the iron while it’s hot, Abbas apparently longs to retake center stage. Can he?

Diminishing support for Hamas is yet to match the contempt Arabs feel toward Abbas himself. Hamas considers him irrelevant for what it calls “the resistance.”

[Meanwhile], Abbas is yet to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. His recent announcement of ending alms for terror is a ruse.

Abbas, it’s worth noting, hasn’t saved all his epithets for Hamas. He also twice said of the Americans, “may their fathers be cursed.” Of course, after a long career of anti-Semitic incitement, Abbas can’t be expected to have a moral awakening. Nor is there much incentive for him to fake one. But, like the protests in Gaza, Abbas’s recent diatribe is a sign that Hamas is perceived as weak and that its stock is sinking.