The southern part of Tel Aviv is home to a large population of migrants from Eritrea—many of whom entered Israel illegally. When, on Saturday, the Eritrean embassy in that city held an event celebrating a national holiday, a large crowd of local Eritreans gathered in protest. They were met by a number of their compatriots who support the East African country’s repressive regime, and a violent confrontation ensued. The editors of the Jerusalem Post comment:

The scene resembled an urban battlefield, according to eyewitness reports. . . .  At least 160 people were injured in consequent clashes between supporters and opponents of the Eritrean government as the regime’s opponents tried for hours to prevent the event from going ahead. Some 50 police officers were wounded in the violence. Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said officers were forced to use stun grenades and live fire when they came under attack. . . . Local businesses were burned and looted, residents were trapped in their homes unable to risk going out, and public property was destroyed.

This was not a spontaneous riot. Both the opponents and the regime supporters were dressed for the protests, wearing blue and red T-shirts, respectively.

Much of the impetus for the government’s proposed [judicial] reform stems from the High Court’s overturning of Knesset laws designed to handle the issue of illegal migrants.

[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is correct in saying that the violence is absolutely unacceptable—and ultimately the blame lies with the protesters themselves.

Israel will likely respond directly against Iran after yesterday’s attack, and has made known that it will calibrate its retaliation based not on the extent of the damage, but on the scale of the attack. The specifics are anyone’s guess, but Edward Luttwak has a suggestion, put forth in an article published just hours before the missile barrage: cut off Tehran’s ability to send money and arms to Shiite Arab militias.

In practice, most of this cash comes from a single source: oil. . . . In other words, the flow of dollars that sustains Israel’s enemies, and which has caused so much trouble to Western interests from the Syrian desert to the Red Sea, emanates almost entirely from the oil loaded onto tankers at the export terminal on Khark Island, a speck of land about 25 kilometers off Iran’s southern coast. Benjamin Netanyahu warned in his recent speech to the UN General Assembly that Israel’s “long arm” can reach them too. Indeed, Khark’s location in the Persian Gulf is relatively close. At 1,516 kilometers from Israel’s main airbase, it’s far closer than the Houthis’ main oil import terminal at Hodeida in Yemen—a place that was destroyed by Israeli jets in July, and attacked again [on Sunday].