Meanwhile on the International front....

The U.S. gives military aid worth $3.3 billion to Israel. It accounts for 15 percent of Israel's defense budget. Significant, but not the thing that makes Israel more powerful than any other country in that region that isn't named Saudi Arabia (which has a powerful military because it sells a lot of oil, even if the U.S. gives them military aid for its own reasons, too).

Israel has a formidable military with or without the U.S. aid.

To put it into perspective. ... Israel's economy is 20 or 30 percent bigger than Iran's with only 10 percent of the population that Iran has. The military it has is a function of Israel having a developed economy, with a very industrious population that produces a lot of things, particularly in areas like IT, biotech, aviation and cybersecurity.

 

What exactly was the point? That Israel is way more powerful economically and militarily than the Gaza Strip is?

Because the equally obvious "duh" point is that an organized group of terrorists that enjoys widespread support from the populace in the Gaza Strip (with that support predicated on longstanding religious intolerance that has held them back as a people in the process), carried out a brutal attack that killed 1200 people and took hundreds of hostages. They did this knowing that Israel was so much more powerful militarily and would respond with force.

 

UN membership and $2.90 will get them a ride on the subway.