I think it’s likely they did not plan for this in Gaza (which is only like 6x25 miles- pretty easy to keep track of activities… like militants training on paragliders). This suggests they likely trained in Iran under their instruction. Iran presumably could have also aided in clandestine communications, etc.
The small conspiratorial part of my brain has to ask if Israel was aware this was coming and chose not to respond in order to demonstrate the atrocities possible by an uninhibited Hamas and to regain international sympathy that has wained tremendously in the past decade in outright favor of the Palestinians, particularly on the American left. One could say this could also be a uniting event in Israel under Netanyahu who is dealing with a lot of political conflict.
As a Jewish person, I have a number of relatives and friends in Israel- thankfully all my family is accounted for and safe. I do know one person who is an IDF solider who was shot in a firefight but is also thankfully going to be okay. I do have family members with people they know currently unaccounted for (who lived close to Gaza), which is quite disturbing considering the possibilities. Terrible stuff.
If you’re looking at this through the lens of at the moment popular oppressor/oppressed lens and trying to connect to US racism to Israel’s relationship with Palestine… such a relationship would not be appropriate as this is a far more complex issue fundamentally based on land.
Secondly, Israel is not an apartheid state. 20% of Israel proper is Muslim btw vs (2-3% Christian). Third, Israel does NOT occupy Gaza. Gaza has its own “elected” government (though I don’t think they’ve held an election in quite a while). Israel does control the flow of materials into Gaza by air, land, and sea- to prevent weapons smuggling. You know who else blockades Gaza? Egypt- they must be racist too.
And “pro-Palestinian” activists suggest that Palestinian’s rights are restricted by Israel… perhaps taking a look at the rights Hama’s affords to its citizens m- virtually nil.
Do Israeli-Muslim in Israel in practice always experience total acceptance by Israeli - unfortunately not at this time, but they do hold important govt positions and have equal rights. But know what might be considered an apartheid state? Places where Jews are forbidden from existing- like Palestine.
Unfortunately, most of human history is people stealing land from other people- whether it be country vs country or tribe vs tribe. In any other time in history either the Jews would have kicked out or killed the Palestines or visa-versa- though the latter combination (both kick out and kill) is the explicitly the goal of Hamas regarding Israel. Israel has offered peace deals, some incredibly generous no less than 13x but Palestine does not want a deal, they want Israel to be theirs.
How do you negotiate with people who have no intention of ever making a deal? How do you deal with a population that you cannot integrate into your society, but if totally left alone would only be far more capable of inflicting harm?
I don’t agree with plenty of actions Israel has taken, but it’s a far cry from how Hamas operates and chooses to treat their citizens. But there’s always this bigotry of low expectations regarding Palestine/Hamas- where they can be one of most backward, oppressive, terroristic governments on the planet and yet the expectations for Israel are a bar that western countries don’t even meet.
All of this is impossible situation for Israel. I sincerely feel terrible for the regular Palestinian people who seek freedom and a normal life. But it’s very hard to deny that the ball is entirely in Palestine’s court in getting a solution.
PS I think it’s hard to call this an eye for an eye situation. Indeed Israel’s military actions have caught civilians in the crossfire. There have been individuals who have done terrible things. But this was a state sponsored, state sanctioned blitz of terrorism. It appears to have targeted civilians just as much, if not more, than govt. When was the last time Israel kidnapped dozens-hundreds people? Or mowed down 260 people in one sitting at a concert with machine guns?
The only thing a change in leadership may change is the expanding settlement issue- which doesn’t necessarily apply to places like the Golan Heights. Security is existential in Israel and near universally seen as vital and there’s zero tolerance among the public for attacks.
There's a lot to unpack here, some I strongly agree with, others I vehemently disagree with. First, the ball is not in the Palestinian court, the massive power imbalance is completely in favor of Israel. Their blockade of Gaza isn't really about weapons, that's theater. After all, Hamas smuggles in weapons with ease. They just launched a massive attack and thousands of rockets from Gaza. They aren't hurting for weapons. What it does do is control the population
and lets Hamas control them. It isn't just the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and let's be clear that's what it is and what Israel was doing and is absolutely state sponsored. That's why people call it an apartheid state. That the Palestinians living there aren't even citizens never mind second or third class citizens doesn't make the analogy less apt.
Further saying it's "just crossfire" or the actions of a "few individuals" completely belies what is happening. What Israel engages in and has always engaged with is collective punishment. Israel is cutting off food, water, and electricity to 2.1 million people in Gaza because "they are animals" - direct quote from Israel's secretary of defense, that's a war crime. That Hamas are genocidal war criminals doesn't make it okay. This is not the first time Israel has done this and during previous intifadas they have killed many many more Palestinian civilians than visa versa. They’re about to again. And I think you can see from previous posts how I think about the arguments that what Hamas did is anything short of a horror to be condemned unequivocally without any whataboutism added on. They’re just like fucking ISIS. Obviously I have my issues with the current Israeli regime which in addition to their Palestinian policies was turning onto the fascism track of Orban and Putin, hence why Israelis were in the streets protesting to prevent the descent.
Going back in history, the generous peace deals that were offered were offered after those that could've accepted them had been politically weakened by Netanyahu’s previous policies. Which btw led to the takeover of Hamas in the first place. And quite a number of analysts even put Israel’s self defeating policies beyond the time frame I’m talking about.
The small conspiratorial part of my brain has to ask if Israel was aware this was coming and chose not to respond in order to demonstrate the atrocities possible by an uninhibited Hamas and to regain international sympathy that has wained tremendously in the past decade in outright favor of the Palestinians, particularly on the American left. One could say this could also be a uniting event in Israel under Netanyahu who is dealing with a lot of political conflict.
Evidence is mounting that he ignored warnings. There is a report which Netanyahu’s government is denying, that Egypt explicitly told the Israelis to expect a major attack from Gaza but Netanyahu was uninterested in hearing. Even if untrue, there were more general warnings from outside the inner circle:
However, not for the reasons you gave, well actually similar but not exactly. Allowing a major attack like this is likely the end of his political career. He’ll be remembered as a failure. But less than a week before the attacks there was an internal government report basically saying Hamas is not a threat. Why? because as I stated in earlier posts and in the quoted piece, by brutalizing and allowing Hamas to brutalize Gaza both Hamas and far right Israeli governments like Likud stayed in power. As long as the attacks were limited, they could sell themselves as the guarantors of security - necessary measures that could keep the evil at bay but always be needed. Their entire security model was based on that Gaza could be allowed to fester indefinitely. Hamas and the Israeli right have a sick symbiotic relationship. Keep people afraid, keep them angry and they'll allow the worst people to control the governments. They had the mistaken belief that Hamas was willing to continue this dance forever. BTW this analysis isn't coming from Western leftist btw, but Israelis. And if you think I’m jaded that’s no different than what you just proposed of allowing a major attack that killed more Jewish innocents in a single day since the holocaust to stay in power.
Again I’ll push back at those who say this is all the Israeli’s fault. It absolutely isn’t. Hamas are not Fatah. They are a genocidal organization with which there is no living with them nor meaningful, lasting negotiations possible. But I’ll push back against those who claim there isn’t blood on Israel’s hands or minimize it as accidents and a few extremists - the extremists are running the government and have been for a long time. Even when they weren’t, when Israel had some of the most effective, liberal governments in the 20th century yes all-too-human mistakes were made - more understandable perhaps but still helped bring us to where we are today.
Regardless of whose fault it is, who is more to blame, a lot of innocent men, women, and children have died and many, many more are about to die. There will be no deescalation or cease fire this time, hoping for ones are not only foolish but counterproductive. There simply can’t be after this, we can only hope that the horrors will end with something more than graves. Understanding how we got here and everybody being honest that none of us are clean is the first step towards getting something more than graves. I have no particular power, no voice that matters beyond what I write here. I’m not going to pretend my long screed, diatribe, whatever will matter much. I can only hope that the people who have power will think similarly. If we don’t, this will repeat again and again and again.
