Storm clouds, silver linings
Storm clouds are building over the Middle East as the long-feared escalation of the conflict there arrived in recent days. The latest round of a decades-old conflict started a year ago with Hamas’ October 7 attack in the south of Israel. Israeli armed forces responded by bombing and invading Gaza and, in the past few days, turned its attention to Iran-backed Hezbollah to the north in Lebanon, killing several of its top leaders. Iran’s response was to rain almost 200 ballistic missiles down on sites in Israel, though damage was limited.