Another 9th of Av lament?

ToI’s Raphael Ahren, in an interim analysis of the conflict, notes that Tuesday was the ninth of the month of Av in the Jewish calendar, when Jews mourn the destruction of two Temples, “among a laundry list of other calamities that befell the Jewish people on this day throughout the ages.”

On this Tuesday, he writes, “many Israeli Jews, especially those leaning to the right, added Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to agree to a 72-hour ceasefire with Hamas to that long tally” of anniversary grief.

Ahren goes on: Once more, many wailed, Israel is caving to international pressure, holding its fire and withdrawing its forces from Gaza without having “finished the job.” The government again wasted an opportunity to root out terrorism, once and for all, from the Hamas-ruled Strip, they lament.

Netanyahu, needless to say, sees it differently…

— Read the full piece here.