November 15, 2012 -Day Two of Pillar of Defense- Hamas Tries to Strike Tel Aviv

It's the second day of "Operation Pillar of Cloud". In the last hour the sirens went off in the Tel Aviv area. I am far away on a business trip with part of my family, but my daughter is in our apartment. She called me the moment the siren went off. We spoke as she found her way to the building's shelter. Her call certainly brought what's going on home. It would seem the missile that was fired toward Tel Aviv was intercepted by one of Israel's anti- missile systems.

Three Israelis were killed when a missile hit Kiryat Malachi, a town where there is no Iron Dome system. This time Israel has been extremely successful in limiting the casualties on the other side. A total of 15 Palestinians have been killed in this operation- and to the best of anyone's knowledge, all but two of those were fighters. This has helped in Israel's public relation and information efforts.

I just watched a series of excerpts on Israeli TV about how foreign stations (including the notorious BBC) have been covering these confrontations. These reports clearly seem more balanced than in the past.

Of course the question that everyone is asking, is how this will end? Its easy to start something... ending it, is something else. Some Israeli observers believe the fact that Hamas, or more correctly their sub-contractor, the Islamic Jihad has fired a missile toward Tel Aviv will be enough reason for Hamas to agree to a ceasefire. Officially, Israel does not seem to want a ceasefire yet. The army once one more day to attack Gaza targets. However, tomorrow the Prime Minister of Egypt is coming to Gaza. The Egyptians are trying to arrange a ceasefire, there is gong to be point where Israel may have to agree to a ceasefire before permanently damaging whatever relations remain with Egypt. When hundreds die every day in Syria, it's hard for the Arab world, and even the Egyptians to get to worked up over 15 deaths. Still, the longer the operation continues, the bigger the chances exist for mistake taking place. While I certainly could be wrong- and we could wake up tomorrow morning and find that Israeli ground troops have entered Gaza, hopefully that will not be necessary.