FROM OUR JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT MONTY PYTHON

ALL IN ALL it has not been a terrific weekend for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

First of all he presided over his country’s single biggest intelligence failure since Yom Kippur in 1973.

Then he declares war on a Palestinian army that has been at war with Israel since before the foundation of the state.

“What it’s called is irrelevant,” says British Middle East veteran Jeremy Jeremy of Silk Voice News based in Cyprus. “Hamas, Hizbollah, PLO, they are all manifestations of the Palestinian Arab desire to win back lost territory and in a great many cases drive the state of Israel into the sea. It hasn’t changed much since 1948. The faces are different, the names are different, the war is constant. Israel has grown complacent and careless since it made peace with Egypt, focusing on deals with Arab neighbors, forgetting that the main rival is camped in its front garden. And technology can be a dangerous friend. You become over reliant on it. Israel became so technologically superior to the Palestinians, that it fell into Hubris. However this particular attack ends, it will not be the end.”