Headlines in Israel and much of the rest of the world were dominated this week by the fallout (and lack of fallout) from last week’s assassination by the US of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and his key Iraqi disciple Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, head of the Kataib Hezbollah terror militia. News analysis shows and newspaper editorial pages in the US and many other countries were filled with commentary mostly composed of severely overwrought predictions (some of which crossed the line into bizarre absurdity) of calamitous events which were sure to follow. However, as Israelis prepare for the Sabbath this Friday evening, they can take comfort from the proverbial “dog that didn’t bark” as the dire predictions of imminent catastrophe made by so many “experts” in the wake of last Friday’s assassination of Iran’s most famous terrorist leader did not come to pass.

The clerical regime in Tehran doesn’t want outright war with the US, despite its repetitive rhetoric to the contrary. Instead, it’s sticking to the long game in its goal of ejecting US forces from the region and completing its takeover of neighbouring Iraq.