Israel and Iran

Hamas, I have heard, is a front for Iran. I've even read that Hamas has been threatened with losing their "sponsorship" from Iran (read: weapons and money shipments) if they give up in this recent conflict with Israel.

Israel, according to NPR this morning, has suffered 13 fatalities in this latest round of fighting. The "Palestinians" have suffered over 900, about half of which were civilian. Which means that, at the cost of 10 soldiers, Israel has killed approximately 450 Hamas militants. 45 to 1 is a fantastic ratio, and in all fairness, probably at least 5 of those IDF deaths were caused by fratricide, rather than by the enemy.

It also appears to me that Israel is pressing the advantage hard, in an attempt to send a political message to Iran. "When we decide to whip you" they are saying, "we will whip you badly. It may take us a long time to decide to move, but when we do move, we will be nearly unstoppable."

In my opinion, this is a poorly thought-out plan. I don't think Iran will respond to the "message" the way Israel expects. In fact, if Iran is demanding that Hamas fight to the last man for their weapons and money, it seems likely that Iran is using Hamas as a distraction from something else they are about. Never waste a good diversion.

I wonder if Israel really has a plan to take out Iran's nuclear capability? And I wonder how they could do that short of some sort of space-based weaponry...