From Khamenei’s death to the 'Islamabad Accords': Ceasefire leaves unanswered questions - editorial

 https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-892393

Former supreme leader Ali Khamenei is dead. Iran’s ballistic missile infrastructure has been set back to a degree Israeli defense planners would have called fantasy in 2024. But the regime survived.

The instinct right now is to focus on what went wrong. That instinct should be resisted long enough to reckon with what this campaign accomplished – but not so long that we mistake a successful military operation for a resolved strategic problem.

The balance sheet tilts in Israel’s favor. That is true. Iran’s ability to threaten this country has diminished over the years. But Netanyahu’s own words Wednesday night suggest the government understands this is unfinished: “There are more objectives to complete, and we will achieve them, either by agreement or by resuming fighting. Our finger is on the trigger.”

The war gave Israel an opening it has not had in a generation. Whether it amounts to anything lasting depends entirely on what comes next.