Whatever judgment one passes on the political and military leadership of 1973, there is no doubt that the heroism of rank-and-file Israeli soldiers and midlevel officers averted disaster. (Take, for instance, Zvika Greengold, who almost-singlehandedly repelled an entire Syrian tank battalion on the first day of the war.) Something similar happened at the beginning of the current crisis. Ran Baratz examines Israelis’ response, and finds evidence not just of heroism, but of a Zionist triumph:

On that fateful Shabbat, we were thrown back in time 75 years. For a few long hours, we were taken by complete surprise and transported back to 1948, with the enemy having all the advantages and we all the disadvantages. . . . But in the depths of the abyss, far removed from all the failed technologies of the General Staff and disconnected politicians, when the people of Israel were unexpectedly thrust to their lowest point into a life-or-death struggle against armed savages, one fact became undeniably clear: we possess an overwhelming advantage over our enemies. In those moments, an indescribable valor arose, a tenacity that we had almost forgotten existed, a supreme courage that we had thought we would no longer need.

It came in the form of soldiers from the Golani, Nahal, and armored brigades who took over the battle lines, fighting until the last bullet and then some. It came in the form of citizens, men and women, members of the rapid-response teams in their communities, who took up arms and engaged the enemy in pitched battles. It came in the form of reservists and police officers who upon hearing that something terrible had happened, took up arms and rushed down south of their own accord, charging into the line of fire, risking their lives to save as many as they could. . . . In those long dark hours when the state appeared to have vanished, the people of Israel rose to the occasion.

So yes, the state faltered. But Zionism has triumphed. On that darkest of dark days, it became evident that the people of Israel is not a fragile “spider’s web” [as Hamas and Hizballah have claimed], and is characterized by neither coddling nor weakness. At the moment of truth, the warrior spirit within us stirred in a matter of minutes.

Examining the effects of Iran’s decision to launch nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1, Benny Morris takes stock of the Jewish state’s strategic situation:

The massive Iranian attack has turned what began as a local war in and around the Gaza Strip and then expanded into a Hamas–Hizballah–Houthi–Israeli war [into] a regional war with wide and possibly calamitous international repercussions.

Before the Iranians launched their attack, Washington warned Tehran to desist (“don’t,” in President Biden’s phrase), and Israel itself had reportedly cautioned the Iranians secretly that such an attack would trigger a devastating Israeli counterstrike. But a much-humiliated Iran went ahead, nonetheless.

For Israel, the way forward seems to lie in an expansion of the war—in the north or south or both—until the country attains some sort of victory, or a diplomatic settlement is reached. A “victory” would mean forcing Hizballah to cease fire in exchange, say, for a cessation of the IDF bombing campaign and withdrawal to the international border, or forcing Iran, after suffering real pain from IDF attacks, to cease its attacks and rein in its proxies: Hizballah, Hamas, and the Houthis.

At the same time, writes Morris, a victory along such lines would still have its limits:

An IDF withdrawal from southern Lebanon and a cessation of Israeli air-force bombing would result in Hizballah’s resurgence and its re-investment of southern Lebanon down to the border. Neither the Americans nor the French nor the UN nor the Lebanese army—many of whose troops are Shiites who support Hizballah—would fight them.