"It may well be that nuclear-armed Israel has only two choices. It can die quietly. Or it can go down guns blazing taking as many of its enemies as possible with it along with over a third of the world's oil pumping capacity.

Which option do you think they'd choose?"

stevenlmeyer,

I imagine if Israel felt like it was being killed at the hands of an Arab country it wouldn't hesitate to use a nuclear bomb. At least in the current paradigm. In 10-20 years who knows how Israel will see itself in the world and how things will pan out.

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It makes sense that Hizbollah did not join in with Hamas as that would have upped the ante considerably. I imagine either the Arab countries are worried about Israel using a nuke or, as you suggest, domestic political support in Gaza and the West Bank is not as robust as the militant Arab leaders would have everyone believe.