So what are we left with? A serious strike at the Islamic Jihad leadership. A volley of hundreds of rockets towards Israel where, boruch Hashem, most of them were intercepted. But most important of all, there were no Jewish casualties. Short and quick. Focused and pinpointed. And halted when the top echelons of the IDF concluded that they had reached the desired goal and that it was time for a speedy cease-fire before anything began to turn sour.
It would be enough for one Gazan child to be killed to change the entire equation and bring Hamas into the picture because then it would be a different kind of war. The Islamic Jihad is perhaps the second biggest terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip but it isn't all that big with very limited military clout. Hamas is big, dominant, equipped with deadly arms and its involvement in this war would have turned this into a different story altogether.
The top Israeli military brass estimated that if they conducted a targeted action against the Jihad without hits all around, the Hamas would stay out of the conflict.
But in fact the contrary is true: the top people in Hamas clapped for joy when the heads of the Islamic Jihad left on their way to become shahidim suicide heroes. They allowed the competing organization to be hurt and injured. Hamas has other interests and at this stage, it does not want conflict with Israel.
Some contend that Hamas is not militarily prepared following the harsh blow they suffered in the previous skirmish last year of "Guardians of the Walls." This is compounded with the economic situation in Gaza, which would not allow a fight without getting the population riled up. People are still reeling from the damages of the previous conflict. This is why Hamas chose to remain on the sidelines, allowing the Jihad to absorb the hard blows - and keep silent, as if to say to the Jihad: "Eat the pudding which you yourselves cooked up."
From the military standpoint, it was unavoidable. Until a week ago, it was tacitly agreed that what was happened in Judea-Samaria was not connected with what happened in Gaza. The army allowed itself free rein in that area. The northern terror organizations tried to respond as best as they could, and react to Israeli activities in the area only through retaliatory measures and not involve Gaza with what was going on their area.
After the top Jihad commander in Shomron was taken into custody in Jenin early last week, the Jihad broke this tacit agreement and threatened to react from Gaza to the arrest of their top official in Judea. Several armed terrorist cells were sent to attack Israeli vehicles in the south near Gaza. Their preferred target was buses transporting children. If not that then they would attack a military vehicle as a second best target.
It was imperative to destroy this new equation which the Jihad sought to create immediately. This is why the army imposed a lockdown on the southern region, and simultaneously, prepared a targeted military action in order to clarity to all of the Gaza organizations that they could not make a connection between Judea and Gaza.
Boruch Hashem, the action succeeded and the moment it was concluded and the message elucidated, Israel accepted a speedy cease-fire.
