Thanks, Erik The Red, though personally I’m in a relatively safe area of the country.

re: #202 realwest

A very thoughtful comment. Thank you for that.
But it does lead, I think, to a fairly logical question: How does Israel insure that no rockets or mortars are ever fired on Israel again from Gaza if it doesn’t use ground forces (and I am a Vietnam infantry combat grunt and am not looking forward to the IDF’s “grunts” job either)?

Indeed, a very important question.
What *could* be a viable solution is deploying international forces in Gaza or at least along its border area with Egypt to decrease smuggling (Which I think the government is pursuing), going along with the assumption that Israel has regained its deterrence factor (If the IDF stops now while having the upper hand thus far) , I think it’s safe to assume Hamas won’t try firing rockets again, at least in the near future, hopefully until a more permanent agreement is achieved.