PUSHING the Ukraine-Russia conflict out of public attention this week was the eruption of the Israel-Hamas war. It was only the fifth between the two parties, but this last has been the deadliest. The attack by Hamas and the response by Israel have been both unprecedented in scale and effect.

The latest Hamas attack was more carefully planned and coordinated than all previous ones. It involved the firing of some 5,000 rockets from Gaza to Israeli skies providing air cover for hundreds of armed members of the Hamas network coming from the air, sea and land, breaking through barriers, riding private cars, motorcycles and paragliders, and all sorts of vehicles, raiding houses, kibbutzim, beaches and gatherings, such as a music festival, opening fire at random at people everywhere they went and abducting more than a hundred Israelis to serve as hostages.