Attack on Israel: Caught in a Spiral of Hate Desperate cries for help from Israel: “They are slaughtering us”

Maybe one day we will find out if the date was deliberately chosen. Or never. But Hamas’s terrorist attacks from Gaza came almost fifty years after the start of the Yom Kippur War. On the highest Jewish holiday, Israel was surprised by an offensive by the Egyptian and Syrian armies.

There were warnings, but the government of Prime Minister Golda Meir did not take them seriously. The events can be seen in the valuable film ‘Golda’ with Helen Mirren, currently in cinemas. The first days of the war were devastating for Israel. Moshe Dayan, the legendary defense minister with the eye patch, had a nervous breakdown.

Over time, the Israeli army gained the upper hand, but the Yom Kippur War claimed the lives of nearly 2,700 soldiers and became a national trauma for the Jewish state. You never wanted to be surprised like that again. Now it has happened, and in some ways Hamas’ terror is worse than the 1973 war.

There is a threat of war on two fronts

The attack from the Gaza Strip took place on Israeli territory and the approximately 700 deaths counted on Sunday evening were mainly civilians. According to official figures, more than a hundred Israelis have been abducted to the Gaza Strip, including women and children. And the number could be significantly higher.

Hamas’s actions are also unprecedentedly brutal and will have a lasting impact on Israeli society. The hostage crisis poses a challenge to the government and military in finding an appropriate response. At the same time, there is a threat of a two-front war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, which is also supported by Iran.

They should have been warned

A question arises: how could this happen? People know what Hamas is capable of since it seized power in Gaza in 2007. Since then, there have been repeated military conflicts with Israel, sometimes more and sometimes less intense, until Egypt brokered a ceasefire.

Nine years ago, Israel accidentally discovered a system of tunnels running under its border fortifications. Thanks to this “lucky hit” they were destroyed, but it was already clear that Hamas was planning something “big”. There should have been a warning, but the fanatics could strike now.

An unresolved conflict

You wonder how this could have happened. Israel of all places, which lives under constant threat and has correspondingly advanced military and intelligence structures, was completely surprised by the attack on Saturday morning. There are initial accusations of guilt, including against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But the real evil has existed since the founding of the State of Israel, 76 years ago. Since then, the Jewish state has made peace with some of its neighbors. Recently there was even talk of rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, possibly one of the motives for the Hamas attack. The conflict with the Palestinians remains unresolved to this day.

Two-state solution almost impossible

On the one hand, this is thanks to the Palestinians, who, in the words of former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” A two-state solution was handed to them on a silver platter several times, but Yasser Arafat rejected it in 2000, just as Mahmoud Abbas did in 2009.

A two-state solution has now become virtually impossible as the national-religious settler movement continues to expand its presence in the West Bank. The governments in Israel allowed them to do their thing and even supported the construction of settlements. Although settlers in Israel are a minority, the majority remained passive.

Arrangement with the status quo

Given the Palestinians’ unwillingness to compromise, the Israeli population has tried to ignore and suppress the conflict. Polls showed a majority saw it as unsolvable. She hoped to come to terms with the status quo. You can also get used to a constant threat.

Netanyahu relied on economic incentives for the Palestinians, including in Gaza, but this strategy never progressed beyond the beginning. Now the Jewish state was brutally torn from its illusions. Israelis and Palestinians are caught in a spiral of hatred, driven by extremists on both sides.

solution at regional level

It is not sustainable to simply try to ‘manage’ such a conflict. At some point a viable solution is needed. In this specific case this is probably only found at a higher, regional level. Israel has long resisted this because it would require painful compromises.

In the short term, Israel must find a way out of the current spiral of terror, and that will not be a walk in the park. “Such a war will not end in the blink of an eye,” President Isaac Herzog warned on Sunday. In the medium term, it will also be about the role and, above all, the shared responsibility of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hatred in your own society

He has formed a government with right-wing extremist settlers, whose aim is to strangle the judiciary. And that’s probably just to get rid of his corruption trials. By doing so, Netanyahu has deeply divided the country and stoked hatred in his own society. This is another reason why there could hardly have been a better time for Hamas to attack.

After the Yom Kippur War, Golda Meir was acquitted by a committee (her actions form the framework in the film “Golda”). Nevertheless, she faced the consequences and resigned a few months later. Benjamin Netanyahu will also face unpleasant questions.