A ray of hope in Gaza

Until a few days ago, The Greatest Leader Since Moses wasn’t having any talk about a ceasefire till all the hostages were returned. It’s more than a modest climb-down to agree to a ceasefire before any hostages are returned. But here we are, almost 24 hours into a ceasefire that seems to be holding, and the first hostage exchanges have come off without a hitch. Why the change of heart? A key factor is that over the past seven weeks Israel has achieved the goal of a 10:1 kill ratio in this round, which, considering the historical record, seems to be the minimum required in any Israel-Palestinian conflict. 1400 Israelis died on 7 October (since adjusted to under 1200) and we’ve now killed over 14,000 Palestinians; we’ve made our point. Hopefully, a few days of calm will allow Israelis to come down from the vengeance high they’ve been on.