12-11-20 Dispatch from Tel Aviv - beautiful day on the beach with some chance of falling explosives

Tel Aviv, November 20 - the weather on the beach was perfect - sunny with a gentle cool breeze even at mid-day.

At the time of writing, it remains unclear, whether a cease fire would commence tonight or not.

The general emerging outlines: Initially, the recent round of fighting may appear as the remix of a re-release of a piece that has never gained any popular acclaim.  However, on closer examination, this time around:  

• Hamas was internationally recognized as de facto government in Gaza, opening the way to Palestine A, Palestine B solution (like Pakistan and Bengladesh). 
• Hamas also won major benefits for its people.  
• After a couple of national "earthquake disaster preparedness drills", Israel managed to test its state of the art offensive and defensive remote war capabilities in real battle, and with it - the impact on the civilian populations.  
• Regionally - a Sunni coalition was put together, led by Egypt, supported by the Emirates, Turkey, backed by the United States, and Hamas is made to answer to the coalition.

In short: All is ready for war with Iran.

The intensity of Israeli media during war is difficult to describe.  In each TV studio you find a team of analysts in real time, discussing the developments, all with earphone connections to backroom feeders.  Typically, a panel may include one expert, who is fed by Israeli senior political sources, one, who is fed by senior Israeli military sources,  and one, who is monitoring Arabic, Persian, and Turkish media, all orchestrated by a moderator or two, with cameo appearances from the field, etc.  The discussions are mostly in middle-eastern terms, e.g., what type of Hudnah will emerge this time around,  what type of respect does Hamas now owe to Mursi, etc.  With it, media are almost identical with government under such conditions, and most of the people then live in a media bubble.  For example, in the first few days  of the fighting, judging by Israeli media, one could have concluded that there were only spontaneous shows of support for Israel in the streets in various parts of the world.