Wars solve no problems. They only create new problems.
On October 7, Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,195 people, including 815 civilians. It was signalling Israel that unless it shut down the “open-air prison” it had been running in Gaza since 2007, more attacks would occur. Hamas seems to have thought that the attack would lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian State.
The attack caught Israel by surprise. But Hamas’ elation was short-lived. The US labelled the attack Israel’s 9/11 and rushed to Israel’s rescue. Hamas totally under-estimated the Israeli counter-response because it misread the mind of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hamas gifted Netanyahu, one of the most ruthless and cunning rulers in modern history, a new lease of life. He is Israel’s longest-ruling prime minister who has aligned himself with extreme right-wing parties. Until October 7, he was fast losing support at home. Anti-Netanyahu rallies were being held regularly in Tel Aviv. They were often attended by members of the clergy and even by members of the armed forces, all of whom were so upset with his style of governance that they had decided to display their anger publicly. Netanyahu was facing charges of corruption. It was not out of the realm of possibilities that the courts would find him guilty and send him to prison.
In any other country, any prime minister who failed to anticipate such a devastating attack would accept the blame and resign. Hamas erred in thinking that Netanyahu would have the moral character for accepting blame. He cleverly deferred the issue of who was to blame until Hamas was destroyed. Calling the Israeli military the “most moral army in the world,” he launched a ground invasion of Gaza that was unprecedented in its vastness, its fury, its cruelty and its barbarism. It was akin to the Roman decision to destroy Carthage.
Saying repeatedly that Hamas fighters were using civilians as human shields, he bombed just about any building that was suspected of housing terrorists. Apartment buildings, schools, colleges, even hospitals and medical clinics were reduced to rubble. Leaflets were dropped, asking people from the north to move to the south. When they would begin the movement, they would be bombed. When they would reach the south, they would be bombed yet again. One million were displaced.
To add insult to injury, he shut off the supply of water and energy to all of Gaza. Supplies of food from Egypt were delayed as the Israeli military inspected all the packages that were coming in. An American experiment to set up a pier to bring in food supplies from the sea did not last for very long. Sanitation collapsed, epidemics fanned out, and famine gripped Gaza.
As the world watched these developments with horror, sentiments began to shift away from Israel. It was no longer regarded as the victim. It began to be viewed as the aggressor. Scores of meetings were held at the United Nations with most nations condemning the Israelis, but to no avail. The US, and several Western nations, continued to vote against any resolutions that condemned Israel. At the UN Security Council, the US vetoed one resolution after another until they stopped coming.
US President Joe Biden, stating that he had provided an “iron-clad” security guarantee to Israel, kept on supplying Israel with bombs and ammunition, including artillery and tank shells. He would occasionally call on Netanyahu to show restraint, and every time, Netanyahu would essentially show him the middle finger.
In just a year, Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including babies, children, and women. It has wounded more than 100,000 thousand and grieved millions in Gaza and beyond
Most Arab and Muslim nations went silent. Several banned pro-Palestinian rallies. It was South Africa, which had lived through years of apartheid, that rose up to defend the Palestinians. It filed charges of genocide against Israel before the International Court of Justice.
However, that did not stop Israel from making its war in Gaza. In fact, Israeli settlers on the West Bank, on whom Biden had threatened to impose sanctions and then withdrawn them, began shooting Palestinians on sight.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel from the north, to relieve pressure on Hamas in Gaza. In the past few weeks, Israel used that as the excuse to bomb targets in Beirut and succeeded in killing the head of Hezbollah. This killing came just months after it had killed the political head of Hamas in Tehran, where he had gone to attend the inauguration of the new Iranian president.
What has the attack of October 7 wrought? In just a year, Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including babies, children, and women. It has wounded more than 100,000 thousand and grieved millions in Gaza and beyond.
This is a catastrophe beyond words. It would not have happened if Hamas had not attacked Israel on October 7. Yes, the Palestinians in Gaza would have continued to live in an “open-air prison,” but that would have been so much better than what transpired.
The primary blame for the genocide in Gaza falls on the shoulders of Netanyahu and his cabinet and on the Israeli soldiers that carried out the rampage.
But the leaders of Hamas who failed to anticipate the Israeli counter-response to October 7 cannot escape blame either. That is why the International Criminal Court has charged them with war crimes along with the leaders of Israel.
Speaking to the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu proclaimed, “We are winning.” Now, he is doing his best to expand the war to Lebanon, Yemen and Iran, seeking indirectly to ensure that Arab and Muslim voters in the US will be so turned off from the Democratic Party that they will vote for Jill Stein. That will almost ensure Trump’s re-election.
All of this must be laid at the door of Hamas. Their attack on October 7 lit a fuse which has turned the region into a tinderbox. It’s yet another instance when the attacker simply assumed that the opponent would accept defeat passively. Strategic myopia abounds in military history.