WALL STREET JOURNAL
The New Israeli Rules of Engagement
Amit Segal
March 4, 2026

The Israeli defense establishment realized as early as the night between October 6 and October 7, 2023, that something was stirring in Gaza. They knew, yet they did nothing. The paralyzing fear was “miscalculation”: the worry that if the IDF moved forces, Hamas would interpret it as an escalation, fighting would ignite, and the coveted “quiet” would be shattered. This was Israel’s state of mind in 2021. The head of the Shin Bet compared it to a patient whose vital signs were all in decline. When a person fails to exercise their muscles for an extended period, they become a couch potato. Decades of containment, restraint, and forbearance caused Israel to appear more vulnerable than ever in the eyes of its enemies. Two and a half years later, Israel stands at the pinnacle of its power in the Middle East. This transformation occurred only after it shed every rule it had gradually adopted since the 1980s. READ MORE