1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
God gathered a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim, and told them:"I am tired of mankind's sins! In two weeks I'll unleash a great flood that will kill all humanity!"The Christian said: "We have only two weeks to appease Him!"The Muslim said: "-We have only two weeks to change our ways!"The Jew said: "We have only two weeks to learn how to breathe underwater!"
The third law is most relevant right now.
October 7 was not only a horrific massacre and the worst attack towards Jews since the Holocaust. It also made the Arab and Muslim worlds look at Israel as weak and attackable. It encouraged not only antisemitism but other attacks, from Hezbollah, the West Bank, Yemen and elsewhere. Arab media was filled with predictions and gleeful expectations that this was the beginning of the end of Israel.
They aren't laughing anymore.
To people in Hezbollah and Hamas and Iran, Israel is a supernatural jinn - it knows where they are, it knows what they say, it knows what they are thinking and are about to do. From all accounts, Israel even managed to get into Nasrallah's brain - to convince him to abandon mobile phones and choose pagers instead, manufactured by a company he already trusted because they sold pagers to him two years earlier!
Israel not only discovered a top secret meeting of Hezbollah leaders in the sub-basement of a residential apartment building, but it managed to kill most of them while leaving most of the building intact.
In Iran, Israel managed to plant a bomb under the bed of their top enemy in one of the most secure buildings in Tehran.
Every terrorist, whether Iranian, Lebanese or Gazan, cannot even trust their closest comrades anymore. They cannot trust their communications devices. Nasrallah might be putting on a brave face, but the Hezbollah organization is now anything but organized.
They might still hate Israel, but they are awed by it. They cannot make any decisions without worrying that those very decisions might be what Israel wants them to do, opening them up to doom.
Meanwhile, despite the rhetoric, the larger Arab world is seeing that Israel is not only attacking terrorists with impunity, but they are targeting them to a degree that is simply unbelievable while minimizing civilian casualties. This is also magical. After ll, jinn can be good or evil - and an increasing number of Sunni Muslims are publicly mocking Hezbollah and tacitly cheering Israel.
To a large degree, Israel has restored deterrence. Because you cannot fight magic.
