Judging by the wiki article it was a reasonably effective jet for its time. Performance seems to be on a par with the Canberra (although it does mention needing water injection for the bomber variant to get airborne at max weight) and used for similar roles. Certainly the Israelis got some good use from it. It doesn't give much idea of handling and performance and I guess the A model wouldn't have fared well against single engined fighters.
Interesting that the bomber variant never had a radar which prompted the requirement for what turned out to be the Mirage IV. The weapons being aimed visually by the Nav who sat in the nose, much like the Canberra BI8. Not sure if he had an ejection seat?
It seems to me it was a bit of a compromise design based on what was available at the time that gave useful service until something better came along.